PART FIVE. MYTHS TRANSFORMED. MYTHS TRANSFORMED. In this last section of the book I give a number of late writings of my father's, various in nature but concerned with, broadly speaking, the reinterpretation of central elements in the 'mythology' (or legendar- ium as he called it) to accord with the imperatives of a greatly modified underlying conception. Some of these papers (there are notable exceptions) offer exceptional difficulty: fluidity of ideas, ambiguous and allusive expression, illegible passages. But the greatest problem is that there is very little firm indication of date external or relative: to order them into even an approximate sequence of composition seems impossible (though I believe that virtually all of them come from the years that saw the writing of Laws and Customs among the Eldar, the Athrabeth, and late revisions of parts of the Quenta Silmarillion - the late 1950s, in the aftermath of the publication of The Lord of the Rings). i'. In these writings can be read the record of a prolonged interior debate. Years before this time, the first signs have been seen of emerging ideas that if pursued would cause massive disturbance in The Silmarillion: I have shown, as I believe, that when my father first began to revise and rewrite the existing narratives of the Elder Days, before The Lord of the Rings was completed, he wrote a version of the Ainulindale that introduced a radical transformation of the astro- nomical myth, but that for that time he stayed his hand (pp. 3 - 6, 43). But now, as will be seen in many of the essays and notes that follow, he had come to believe that such a vast upheaval was a necessity, that the cosmos of the old myth was no longer valid; and at the same time he was impelled to try to construct a more secure 'theoretical' or 'systematic' basis for elements in the legendarium that were not to be dislodged. With their questionings, their certainties giving way to doubt, their contradictory resolutions, these writings are to be read with a sense of intellectual and imaginative stress in the face of such a dismantling and reconstitution, believed to be an inescapable neces- sity, but never to be achieved. The texts, arranged in a very loose 'thematic' sequence, are num- bered in Roman numerals. Almost all have received very minor editing (matters of punctuation, insertion of omitted words, and suchlike). Numbered notes (not present in all cases) follow the individual texts. I. I give first a short statement written on two slips found pinned to one of the typescripts of the Annals of Aman, which would date it to 1958 or later (if my general conclusions about dating are correct, p. 300). This descends from the oldest forms of the mythology - when it was still intended to be no more than another primitive mythology, though more coherent and less 'savage'. It was consequently a 'Flat Earth' cosmogony (much easier to manage anyway): the Matter of Numenor had not been devised. It is now clear to me that in any case the Mythology must actually be a 'Mannish' affair. (Men are really only interested in Men and in Men's ideas and visions.) The High Eldar living and being tutored by the demiurgic beings must have known, or at least their writers and loremasters must have known, the 'truth' (according to their measure of understanding). What we have in the Silmarillion etc. are traditions (especially personalized, and centred upon actors, such as Feanor) handed on by Men in Numenor and later in Middle-earth (Arnor and Gondor); but already far back - from the first association of the Dunedain and Elf-friends with the Eldar in Beleriand - blended and confused with their own Mannish myths and cosmic ideas. At that point (in reconsideration of the early cosmogonic parts) I was inclined to adhere to the Flat Earth and the astronomically absurd business of the making of the Sun and Moon. But you can make up stories of that kind when you live among people who have the same general background of imagination, when the Sun 'really' rises in the East and goes down in the West, etc. When however (no matter how little most people know or think about astronomy) it is the general belief that we live upon a 'spherical' island in 'Space' you cannot do this any more. One loses, of course, the dramatic impact of such things as the first 'incarnates' waking in a starlit world - or the coming of the High Elves to Middle-earth and unfurling their banners at the first rising of the Moon. I have given this first, because - though jotted down at great speed- it is an express statement of my father's views at this time, in three, major respects. The astronomical myths of the Elder Days cannot be regarded as a record of the traditional beliefs of the Eldar in any pure form, because the High-elves of Aman cannot have been thus ignorant; and the cosmological elements in The Silmarillion are essentially a record of mythological ideas, complex in origin, prevailing among Men.(1) In this note, however, my father appears to have accepted that these ideas do not in themselves necessarily lead to great upheaval in the essential 'world-structure' of The Silmarillion, but on the contrary provide a basis for its retention ('At that point ... I was inclined to adhere to the Flat Earth'). The conclusion of this brief statement appears then to be a further and unconnected step: that the cosmological myth of The Silmarillion was a 'creative error' on the part of its maker, since it could have no imaginative truth for people who know very well that such an 'astronomy' is delusory. As he stated it, this may seem to be an argument of the most doubtful nature, raising indeed the question, why is the myth of the Two Trees (which so far as record goes he never showed any intention to abandon) more acceptable than that of the creation of the Sun and the Moon from the last fruit and flower of the Trees as they died? Or indeed, if this is true, how can it be acceptable that the Evening Star is the Silmaril cut by Beren from Morgoth's crown? It is at any rate clear, for he stated it unambiguously enough, that he had come to believe that the art of the 'Sub-creator' cannot, or should not attempt to, extend to the 'mythical' revelation of a conception of the shape of the Earth and the origin of the lights of heaven that runs counter to the known physical truths of his own days: 'You cannot do this any more'. And this opinion is rendered more complex and difficult of discussion by the rise in importance of the Eldarin 'loremasters' of Aman, whose intellectual attainments and knowledge must preclude any idea that a 'false' astronomy could have prevailed among them. It seems to me that he was devising - from within it - a fearful weapon against his own creation. In this brief text he wrote scornfully of 'the astronomically absurd business of the making of the Sun and Moon'. I think it possible that it was the actual nature of this myth that led him finally to abandon it. It is in conception beautiful, and not absurd; but it is exceedingly 'primitive'. Of the original 'Tale of the Sun and Moon' in The Book of Lost Tales I wrote (1.201): As a result of this fullness and intensity of description, the origin of the Sun and Moon in the last fruit and last flower of the Trees has less of mystery than in the succinct and beautiful language of The Silmarillion; but also much is said here to emphasize the great size of the 'Fruit of Noon', and the increase in the heat and brilliance of the Sunship after its launching, so that the reflection rises less readily that if the Sun that brilliantly illumines the whole Earth was but one fruit of Laurelin then Valinor must have been painfully bright and hot in the days of the Trees. In the early story the last outpourings of life from the dying Trees are utterly strange and 'enormous', those of Laurelin portentous, even ominous; the Sun is astoundingly bright and hot even to the Valar, who are awestruck and disquieted by what has been done (the Gods knew 'that they had done a greater thing than they at first knew'); and the anger and distress of certain of the Valar at the burning light of the Sun enforces the feeling that in the last fruit of Laurelin a terrible and unforeseen power has been released. As the Quenta Silmarillion evolved and changed the myth had been diminished in the scale and energy of its presentation; indeed in the final form of the chapter, and in the Annals of Aman, the description of the actual origin of the Sun and Moon is reduced to a few lines. Yet even as hope failed and her song faltered, behold! Telperion bore at last upon a leafless bough one great flower of silver, and Laurelin a single fruit of gold. These Yavanna took, and then the Trees died, and their lifeless stems stand yet in Valinor, a memorial of vanished joy. But the flower and fruit Yavanna gave to Aule, and Manwe hallowed them; and Aule and his folk made vessels to hold them and preserve their radiance, as is said in the Narsilion, the Song of the Sun and Moon. These vessels the gods gave to Varda, that they might become lamps of heaven, outshining the ancient stars... The grave and tranquil words cannot entirely suppress a sense that there emerges here an outcropping, as it were, uneroded, from an older level, more fantastic, more bizarre. As indeed it does: such was the nature of the work, evolved over so many years. But it did not stand in the work as an isolated myth, a now gratuitous element that could be excised; for bound up with it was the myth of the Two Trees ('the Elder Sun and Moon'), giving light through long ages to the land of Valinor, while Middle-earth lay in darkness, illumined only by the stars in the firmament of Arda. In that darkness the Elves awoke, the People of the Stars; and after the death of the Trees the ancient Light was preserved only in the Silmarils. In 1951 my father had written (Letters no.131, p. 148): There was the Light of Valinor made visible in the Two Trees of Silver and Gold. These were slain by the Enemy out of malice, and Valinor was darkened, though from them, ere they died utterly, were derived the lights of Sun and Moon. (A marked difference here between these legends and most others is that the Sun is not a divine symbol, but a second-best thing, and the 'light of the Sun' (the world under the sun) become terms for a fallen world, and a dislocated imperfect vision.) But: 'You cannot do this any more.' In the following pages will be seen how, driven by this conviction, he attempted to undo what he had done, but to retain what he might. It is remarkable that he never at this time seems to have felt that what he said in this present note provided a resolution of the problem that he believed to exist: What we have in the Silmarillion etc. are traditions... handed on by Men in Numenor and later in Middle-earth (Arnor and Gondor); but already far back - from the first association of the Dunedain and Elf-friends with the Eldar in Beleriand - blended and confused with their own Mannish myths and cosmic ideas. It is tempting to suppose that when my father wrote that 'in reconsideration of the early cosmogonic parts' he was 'inclined to adhere to the Flat Earth and the astronomically absurd business of the making of the Sun and Moon', he was referring to Ainulindale' C and the Annals of Aman. If this were so, it might account for the developments in Ainulindale' C discussed on pp. 27 - 9, where Arda becomes a small world within the vastness of Ea - but retains the 'Flat Earth' characteristics of Ilu from the Ambarkanta and before. In connection with my father's statement that the legends of The Silmarillion were traditions handed on by Men in Numenor and later in the Numenorean kingdoms in Middle-earth, this is a convenient place to give an entirely isolated note carefully typed (but not on his later typewriter) on a small slip and headed 'Memorandum'. The three Great Tales must be Numenorean, and derived from matter preserved in Gondor. They were part of the Atanatarion (or the Legendarium of the Fathers of Men). ?Sindarin Nern in Edenedair (or In Adanath). They are (1) Narn Beren ion Barahir also called Narn e-Dinuviel (Tale of the Nightingale) (2) Narn e-mbar Hador containing (a) Narn i Chin Hurin (or Narn e-'Rach Morgoth Tale of the Curse of Morgoth); and (b) Narn en El (or Narn e-Dant Gondolin ar Orthad en El) Should not these be given as Appendices to the Silmarillion? In the question with which this ends my father was presumably distinguishing between long and short forms of the tales. - Two further notes on this slip, typed at the same time as the above, refer to 'the Tale of Turin' and suggest that he was working on it at that time.(2) I do not know of any precise evidence to date the great development of the 'Turin Saga', but it certainly belongs to an earlier period than the writings given in the latter part of this book. The idea that the legends of the Elder Days derived from Numenor- ean tradition appears also in the abandoned typescript (AAm') of the Annals of Aman that my father made himself (p. 64).(3) In this text the preamble states: Here begin the 'Annals of Aman'. Rumil made them in the Elder Days, and they were held in memory by the Exiles. Those parts which we learned and remembered were thus set down in Numenor before the Shadow fell upon it. NOTES. 1. Very similar remarks are made in Note 2 to the Commentary on the Athrabeth (p. 337): Physically Arda was what we should call the Solar System. Presumably the Eldar could have had as much and as accurate information concerning this, its structure, origin, and its relation to the rest of Ea as they could comprehend. A little further on in this same Note it is said: The traditions here referred to have come down from the Eldar of the First Age, through Elves who never were directly ac- quainted with the Valar, and through Men who received 'lore' from the Elves, but who had myths and cosmogonic legends, and astronomical guesses, of their own. There is, however, nothing in them that seriously conflicts with present human notions of the Solar System, and its size and position relative to the Universe. The sentence which I have italicised suggests an assured commit- ment, at the least, to the re-formation of the old cosmology. - For references in the Commentary on the Athrabeth to the Numenorean part in the transmission of legends of the Elder Days see pp. 342, 344, 360. 2. These are a proposal that Niniel (Nienor) should 'in her looks and ways' remind Turin of Lalaeth, his sister who died in childhood (see Unfinished Tales p. 147 note 7), and another, marked with a query, that Turin should think of the words of Saeros, the Elf of Doriath, when he finds Niniel naked in the eaves of the Forest of Brethil (Unfinished Tales pp. 80, 122). On the back of this slip my father wrote (in a furious scribble in ball-point pen): The cosmogonic myths are Numenorean, blending Elven-lore with human myth and imagination. A note should say that the Wise of Numenor recorded that the making of stars was not so, nor of Sun and Moon. For Sun and stars were all older than Arda. But the placing of Arda amidst stars and under the [?guard] of the Sun was due to Manwe and Varda before the assault of Melkor. I take the words 'the Wise of Numenor recorded that the making of stars was not so, nor of Sun and Moon' to mean that the making of the Sun, Moon and stars was not derived from 'Elven- lore'. It is to be noted that Arda here means 'the Earth', not 'the Solar System'. 3. I have said (p. 64) that I would be inclined to place AAm* with the writing of the original manuscript of the Annals rather than to some later time, but this is no more than a guess. II. This is a text of a most problematic nature, a manuscript in ink that falls into two parts which are plainly very closely associated: a discussion, with proposals for the 'regeneration' of the mythology; and an abandoned narrative. Neither has title or heading. The Making of the Sun and Moon must occur long before the coming of the Elves; and cannot be made to be after the death of the Two Trees - if that occurred in any connexion with the sojourn of the Noldor in Valinor. The time allowed is too short. Neither could there be woods and flowers &c. on earth, if there had been no light since the overthrow of the Lamps!(1) But how can, nonetheless, the Eldar be called the 'Star-folk'? Since the Eldar are supposed to be wiser and have truer knowledge of the history and nature of the Earth than Men (or than Wild Elves), their legends should have a closer relation to the knowledge now possessed of at least the form of the Solar System (= Kingdom of Arda);(2) though it need not, of course, follow any 'scientific' theory of its making or development. It therefore seems clear that the cosmogonic mythology should represent Arda as it is, more or less: an island in the void 'amidst the innumerable stars'. The Sun should be coeval with Earth, though its relative size need not be considered, while the apparent revolution of the Sun about the Earth will be accepted.* The Stars, therefore, in general will be other and remoter parts of the Great Tale of Ea, which do not concern the Valar of Arda. Though, even if not explicitly, it will be an underlying assumption that the Kingdom of Arda is of central importance, selected amid all the immeasurable vast of Ea as the scene for the main drama of the conflict of Melkor with Iluvatar, and the Children of Eru. Melkor is the supreme spirit of Pride and Revolt, not just the chief Vala of the Earth, who has turned to evil.(3) (* [marginal note] It is or would be in any case a 'fact of life' for any intelligence that chose the Earth for a place of life and labour. [There is no indication where this is to go, but nowhere else on the page seems suitable.]) Varda, therefore, as one of the great Valar of Arda, cannot be said to have 'kindled' the stars, as an original subcreative act - not at least the stars in general.(4) The Story, it seems, should follow such a line as this. The entry of the Valar into Ea at the beginning of Time. The choosing of the Kingdom of Arda as their chief abiding place (? by the highest and noblest of the Ainur,(5) to whom Iluvatar had intended to commit the care of the Eruhini). Manwe and his companions elude Melkor and begin the ordering of Arda, but Melkor seeks for them and at last finds Arda,(6) and contests the kingship with Manwe. This period will, roughly, correspond to supposed primeval epochs before Earth became habitable. A time of fire and cataclysm. Melkor disarrayed the Sun so that at periods it was too hot, and at others too cold. Whether this was due to the state of the Sun, or alterations in the orbit of Earth, need not be made precise: both are possible. But after a battle Melkor is driven out from Earth itself. (The First Battle?) He finds he can only come there in great secrecy. At this time he begins first to turn most to cold and darkness. His first desire (and weapon) had been fire and heat. It was in the wielding of flame that Tulkas (? originally Vala of the Sun) defeated him in the First Battle. Melkor therefore comes mostly at night and especially to the North in winter. (It was after the First Battle that Varda set certain stars as ominous signs for the dwellers in Arda to see.) The Valar to counteract this make the Moon. Out of earth-stuff or Sun? This is to be a subsidiary light to mitigate night * (as Melkor had made it), and also a 'vessel of watch and ward' to circle the world.(7) But Melkor gathered in the Void spirits of cold &c. and suddenly assailed it, driving out the Vala Tilion.(8) The Moon was thereafter long while steerless and vagrant and called Rana (neuter).(9) [If Tulkas came from the Sun, then Tulkas was the form this Vala adopted on Earth, being in origin Auron (masculine). But the Sun is feminine; and it is better that the Vala should be Aren, a maiden whom Melkor endeavoured to make his spouse (or ravished);(10) she went up in a flame of wrath and anguish and (* [marginal note] But not to drive it away. It was necessary to have an alternation, 'because in Ea according to the Tale nothing can endure endlessly without weariness and corruption.') her spirit was released from Ea, but Melkor was blackened and burned, and his form was thereafter dark, and he took to dark- ness. (The Sun itself was Anar neuter or Ur, cf. Rana, Ithil.)] The Sun remained a Lonely Fire, polluted by Melkor, but after the death of the Two Trees Tilion returned to the Moon, which remained therefore an enemy of Melkor and his servants and creatures of night - and so beloved of Elves later &c. After the capture of the Moon Melkor begins to be more bold again. He establishes permanent seats in the North deep under- ground. From thence proceeds the secret corruption which per- verts the labours of the Valar (especially of Aule and Yavanna). The Valar grow weary. At length discovering Melkor and where he dwells they seek to drive him out again, but Utumno proves too strong. Varda has preserved some of the Primeval Light (her original chief concern in the Great Tale). The Two Trees are made. The Valar make their resting place and dwellings in Valinor in the West. Now one of the objects of the Trees (as later of the Jewels) was the healing of the hurts of Melkor, but this could easily have a selfish aspect: the staying of history - not going on with the Tale. This effect it had on the Valar. They became more and more enamoured of Valinor, and went there more often and stayed there longer. Middle-earth was left too little tended, and too little protected against Melkor. Towards the end of the Days of Bliss, the Valar find the tables turned. They are driven out of Middle-earth by Melkor and his evil spirits and monsters; and can only themselves come there secretly and briefly (Orome and Yavanna mainly). This period must be brief. Both sides know that the coming of the Children of God is imminent. Melkor desires to dominate them at once with fear and darkness and enslave them. He darkens the world [added in margin: for 7 years?] cutting off all vision of the sky so far as he can, and though far south (it is said) this was not effective. From the far North (where [they are] dense) to the middle (Endor)(11) great clouds brood. Moon and stars are invisible. Day is only a dim twilight at full. Only light [is] in Valinor. Varda arises in her might and Manwe of the Winds and strive with the Cloud of Unseeing. But as fast as it is rent Melkor closes the veil again - at least over Middle-earth. Then came the Great Wind of Manwe, and the veil was rent. The stars shine out clear even in the North (Valakirka) and after the long dark seem terribly bright. It is in the dark just before that the Elves awake. The first thing they see in the dark is the stars. But Melkor brings up glooms out of the East, and the stars fade away west. Hence they think from the beginning of light and beauty in the West. The Coming of Orome. The Third Battle and the captivity of Melkor. The Eldar go to Valinor. The clouds slowly disperse after the capture of Melkor though Utumno still belches. It is darkest eastward, furthest from the breath of Manwe. The March of the Eldar is through great Rains? Men awake in an Isle amid the floods and therefore welcome the Sun which seems to come out of the East. Only when the world is drier do they leave the Isle and spread abroad. It is only Men that met Elves and heard the rumours of the West that go that way. For the Elves said: 'If you delight in the Sun, you will walk in the path it goes.' The coming of Men will therefore be much further back.(12) This will be better; for a bare 400 years is quite inadequate to produce the variety, and the advancement (e.g. of the Edain) at the time of Felagund.(13) Men must awake while Melkor is still in Arda? - because of their Fall.(14) Therefore in some period during the Great March. This text ends here. There follows now the associated narrative, identical in appearance to the foregoing discussion (both elements are written in the same rather unusual script). After the Valar, who before were the Ainur of the Great Song, entered into Ea, those who were the noblest among them and understood most of the mind of Iluvatar sought amid the immeasurable regions of the Beginning for that place where they should establish the Kingdom of Arda in time to come. And when they had chosen that point and region where it should be, they began the labours that were needed. Others there were, countless to our thought though known each and numbered in the mind of Iluvatar, whose labour lay elsewhere and in other regions and histories of the Great Tale, amid stars remote and worlds beyond the reach of the furthest thought. But of these others we know nothing and cannot know, though the Valar of Arda, maybe, remember them all. Chief of the Valar of Arda was he whom the Eldar afterwards named Manwe, the Blessed: the Elder King, since he was the first of all kings in [Arda >] Ea. Brother to him was Melkor, the potent, and he had, as has been told, fallen into pride and desire of his own dominion. Therefore the Valar avoided him, and began the building and ordering of Arda without him. For which reason it is said that whereas there is now great evil in Arda and many things therein are at discord, so that the good of one seemeth to be the hurt of another, nonetheless the founda- tions of this world are good, and it turns by nature to good, healing itself from within by the power that was set there in its making; and evil in Arda would fail and pass away if it were not renewed from without: that is: that comes from wills and being [sic] that are other than Arda itself. And as is known well, the prime among these is Melkor. Measureless as were the regions of Ea, yet in the Beginning, where he could have been Master of all that was done - for there were many of the Ainur of the Song willing to follow him and serve him, if he called - still he was not content. And he sought ever for Arda and Manwe, his brother, begrudging him the kingship, small though it might seem to his desire and his potency; for he knew that to that kingship Iluvatar designed to give the highest royalty in Ea, and under the rule of that throne to bring forth the Children of God. And in his thought which deceived him, for the liar shall lie unto himself, he believed that over the Children he might hold absolute sway and be unto them sole lord and master, as he could not be to spirits of his own kind, however subservient to himself. For they knew that the One Is, and must assent to Melkor's rebellion of their own choice; whereas he purposed to withhold from the Children this knowledge and be for ever a shadow between them and the light. As a shadow Melkor did not then conceive himself. For in his beginning he loved and desired light, and the form that he took was exceedingly bright; and he said in his heart: 'On such brightness as I am the Children shall hardly endure to look; therefore to know of aught else or beyond or even to strain their small minds to conceive of it would not be for their good.' But the lesser brightness that stands before the greater becomes a darkness. And Melkor was jealous, therefore, of all other brightnesses, and wished to take all light unto himself. There- fore Iluvatar, at the entering in of the Valar into Ea, added a theme to the Great Song which was not in it at the first Singing, and he called one of the Ainur to him. Now this was that Spirit which afterwards became Varda (and taking female form became the spouse of Manwe). To Varda Iluvatar said: 'I will give unto thee a parting gift. Thou shalt take into Ea a light that is holy, coming new from Me, unsullied by the thought and lust of Melkor, and with thee it shall enter into Ea, and be in Ea, but not of Ea.' Wherefore Varda is the most holy and revered of all the Valar, and those that name the light of Varda name the love of Ea that Eru has, and they are afraid, less only to name the One. Nonetheless this gift of Iluvatar to the Valar has its own peril, as have all his free gifts: which is in the end no more than to say that they play a part in the Great Tale so that it may be complete; for without peril they would be without power, and the giving would be void. When therefore at last Melkor discovered the abiding place of Manwe and his friends he went thither in great haste, as a blazing fire. And finding that already great labours had been achieved without his counsel, he was angered, and desired to undo what was done or to alter it according to his own mind. But this Manwe would not suffer, and there was war therefore in Arda. But as is elsewhere written Melkor was at that time defeated with the aid of Tulkas (who was not among those who began the building of Ea) and driven out again into the Void that lay about Arda. This is named the First Battle; and though Manwe had the victory, great hurt was done to the work of the Valar; and the worst of the deeds of the wrath of Melkor was seen in the Sun. Now the Sun was designed to be the heart of Arda, and the Valar purposed that it should give light to all that Realm, unceasingly and without wearying or diminution, and that from its light the world should receive health and life and growth. Therefore Varda set there the most ardent and beautiful of all those spirits that had entered with her into Ea, and she was named Ar(i),(15) and Varda gave to her keeping a portion of the gift of Iluvatar so that the Sun should endure and be blessed and give blessing. The Sun, the loremasters tell us, was in that beginning named As (which is as near as it can be interpreted Warmth, to which are joined Light and Solace), and that the spirit therefore was called Azie (or later Arie). But Melkor, as hath been told, lusted after all light, desiring it jealously for his own. Moreover he soon perceived that in As there was a light that had been concealed from him, and which had a power of which he had not thought. Therefore, afire at once with desire and anger, he went to As [written above: Asa], and he spoke to Arie, saying: 'I have chosen thee, and thou shalt be my spouse, even as Varda is to Manwe, and together we shall wield all splendour and mastery. Then the kingship of Arda shall be mine in deed as in right, and thou shalt be the partner of my glory.' But Arie rejected Melkor and rebuked him, saying: 'Speak not of right, which thou hast long forgotten. Neither for thee nor by thee alone was Ea made; and thou shalt not be King of Arda. Beware therefore; for there is in the heart of As a light in which thou hast no part, and a fire which will not serve thee. Put not out thy hand to it. For though thy potency may destroy it, it will burn thee and thy brightness will be made dark.' Melkor did not heed her warning, but cried in his wrath: 'The gift which is withheld I take!' and he ravished Arie, desiring both to abase her and to take into himself her powers. Then the spirit of Arie went up like a flame of anguish and wrath, and departed for ever from Arda,* and the Sun was bereft of the Light of Varda, and was stained by the assault of Melkor. And being for a long while without rule it flamed with excessive heat or grew too cool, so that grievous hurt was done to Arda and the fashioning of the world was marred and delayed, until with long toil the Valar made a new order.+ But even as Arie foretold, Melkor was burned and his brightness darkened, and he gave no more light, but light pained him exceedingly and he hated it. Nonetheless Melkor would not leave Arda in peace; and above all he begrudged to the Valar their dwelling on Earth, and desired to injure their labours there, or bring them to naught, if he could. Therefore he returned to Earth, but for fear of the might of the Valar and of Tulkas more than all he came now in secret. And in his hatred of the Sun he came to the North at night in winter. At first he would depart when the long day of summer came; but after a time, becoming bolder again, and desiring a dwelling place of his own, he began the delving (* [marginal note] Indeed some say that it was released from Ea.) (+ [marginal note] Also some of the Wise have said that the ordering of Arda, as to the placing and courses of its parts, was disarrayed by Melkor, so that the Earth was at times drawn too near to the Sun, and at others went too far off.) underground of his great fortress in the far North, which was afterwards named Utumno (or Udun). The Valar therefore, when they became aware by the signs of evil that were seen upon Earth that Melkor had stolen back, sought in vain for him, though Tulcas and Orome went wide over Middle-earth even to the uttermost East. When they perceived that Melkor would now turn darkness and night to his purposes, as he had aforetime sought to wield flame, they were grieved; for it was a part of their design that there should be change and alteration upon Earth, and neither day perpetual nor night without end.* For by Night the Children of Arda should know Day, and perceive and love Light; and yet Night should also in its kind be good and blessed, being a time of repose, and of inward thought; and a vision also of things high and fair that are beyond Arda, but are veiled by the splendour of Anar. But Melkor would make it a time of peril unseen, of fear without form, an uneasy vigil; or a haunted dream, leading through despair to the shadow of Death. Therefore Manwe took counsel with Varda, and they called Aule to their aid. And they resolved to alter the fashion of Arda and of Earth, and in their thought they devised Ithil, the Moon. In what way and with what labours they wrought in deed this great device of their thought, who shall say: for which of the Children hath seen the Valar in the uprising of their strength or listened to their counsels in the flower of their youth? Who hath observed their labour as they laboured, who hath seen the newness of the new? Some say that it was out of Earth (16) itself that Ithil was made, and thus Ambar (17) was diminished; others say that the Moon was made of like things to the Earth and of that which is Ea itself as it was made in the Tale.(18) Now when the Moon was full-wrought it was set above Ambar, and directed to go ever round and about, bringing a light to dark places from which the Sun had departed. But it was a lesser light, so that moonlight was not the same as sunlight, and there was still change of light upon the Earth; moreover (* [footnote to the text] For it is indeed of the nature of Ea and the Great History that naught may stay unchanged in time, and things which do so, or appear to do so, or endeavour to remain so, become a weariness, and are loved no longer (or are at best unheeded).) there was still also night under the stars, for the Moon and the Sun were at certain times and seasons both absent. This at least is what came after to be by that doom spoken by Iluvatar..... the evil of Melkor should in its own despite bring forth things more fair than the devising of his ..... For some have held that the Moon was at first aflame, but was later made [?strong] and life .....: later but while Arda was unfashioned and still in the turmoils of Melkor. So much is known to the Wise, that Tilion - [sic] and that Melkor was filled with new wrath at the rising of the Moon. Therefore for a while he left Ambar again and went out into the Outer Night, and gathered to him some of those spirits who would answer his call. A page of rough and disconnected notes obviously preceded this text, but must belong to much the same time: ideas found in the discussion and synopsis preceding the narrative are found also here, such as the 'great darkness of shadow' created by Melkor that blotted out the Sun. In these notes my father was still asking himself whether he should 'keep the old mythological story of the making of the Sun and Moon, or alter the background to a "round earth" version', and observing that in the latter case the Moon would be a work of Melkor's to provide 'a safe retreat' - thus returning to the idea of the origin of the Moon found years before in text C* of the Ainulindale' (p. 41, $31). Doubt and lack of certain direction are very strongly conveyed, as he wrestled with the intractable problems posed by the presence of the Sun in the sky under which the Elves awoke, which was lit only by the stars.(19) There are features in the present text that clearly associate it with the Commentary on the Athrabeth (see notes 2 and 3 below), among them the use of the name Arda to mean the Solar System; but while the Earth itself is in the Commentary named Imbar it has here the older name Ambar (see note 17). There can be no doubt, I think, that the present text was the earlier of the two. On the other hand, no more finished or complete presentation of the new conceptions at large, the 'new mythology', is found; and it seems at any rate arguable that while committed in mind to the abandonment of the old myth of the origin of the Sun and Moon my father left in abeyance the formulation and expression of the new. It may be, though I have no evidence on the question one way or the other, that he came to perceive from such experimental writing as this text that the old structure was too comprehensive, too interlocked in all its parts, indeed its roots too deep, to withstand such a devastating surgery. NOTES. 1. In AAm $15 (p. 52) 'there was great growth of trees and herbs, and beasts and birds came forth' in the light of the Lamps: that was the Spring of Arda. But after the destruction of the Lamps Yavanna 'set a sleep upon many fair things that had arisen in the Spring, both tree and herb and beast and bird, so that they should not age but should wait for a time of awakening that yet should be' ($30, p. 70). 2. On the astronomical knowledge to be presumed among the High-elves cf. Note 2 to the Commentary on the Athrabeth (p. 337) - where as here Arda is equated with the Solar System - and Text I (p. 370). 3. The thought of this paragraph is closely paralleled in Note 2 to the Commentary on the Athrabeth (p. 337), and the final sentence is very similar to what is said in the Commentary itself, p. 334 ('Melkor was not just a local Evil on Earth...'). 4. In AAm $24 (p. 54) it is told that after the Fall of the Lamps 'Middle-earth lay in a twilight beneath the stars that Varda had wrought in the ages forgotten of her labours in Ea', and in $34 (p. 71) Varda looked out from Taniquetil 'and beheld the darkness of the Earth beneath the innumerable stars, faint and far', before she began the making of new and brighter stars; so also in the revised Quenta Silmarillion (p. 159, $19): 'Then Varda made new stars and brighter against the coming of the First-born. Wherefore she whose name out of the deeps of time and the labours of Ea was Tintalle, the Kindler, was called after by the Elves Elentari, the Queen of the Stars.' But if she can still perhaps be called Elentari, she can no longer be called Tintalle (see however p. 388 and note 3). In a late emendation to the final text D of the Ainulindale (p. 34, $36) the words concerning Varda 'she it was who wrought the Stars' were changed to 'she it was who wrought the Great Stars'; and it seems possible that this was done in the light of the ideas presented here. 5. Cf. Note 2 to the Commentary on the Athrabeth (p. 337), with note 13 to that passage. 6. This is of course altogether different from the form of the legend in the Ainulindale' (p. 14, $23): 'But Melkor, too, was there from the first, and he meddled in all that was done'; while in the text C* (p. 40) Melkor entered Arda before the other Ainur. 7. The legend in Ainulindale' C* that Melkor himself made the Moon so that he 'could observe thence all that happened below' (p. 41, $31) had been abandoned (but see p. 383). 8. In AAm (p. 131, $172) and in QS ($75) Tilion was no Vala, but 'a young hunter of the company of Orome'. In AAm $179 appears the story that Morgoth assailed Tilion, 'sending spirits of shadow against him', but unavailingly. 9. On names of the Sun and Moon see QS $75 and commentary (V.241, 243) and the later revision of the passage (p. 198); also AAm $171 and commentary (pp. 130, 136). 10. In AAm (p. 133, $179) it was told that 'Arien Morgoth feared with a great fear, and dared not to come nigh her'. 11. On the name Endor see AAm $38 (pp. 72, 76). 12. See p. 327 note 16. 13. 'at the time of Felagund': i.e. at the time when Finrod Felagund encountered Men, first of the High-elves to do so (p. 307). 14. 'Men must awake while Melkor is still in Arda?': 'Arda' must be an error for 'Middle-earth' (i.e. before his captivity in Aman). 15. An s is pencilled over the r of Ar(i). 16. Above Earth my father wrote Ambar, then struck it out, and wrote 'Mar = House'. See the next note. 17. In Note 2 to the Commentary on the Athrabeth (p. 337, and see note 12 to that passage) appears Imbar, translated 'the Habita- tion', = Earth, 'the principal part of Arda' (= the Solar System). 18. From this point the manuscript becomes very rough, in places illegible, and soon peters out. 19. In other scribbled notes (written at the same time as text II and constituting a part of that manuscript) my father wrote that Varda gave the holy light received in gift from Iluvatar (see p. 380) not only to the Sun and to the Two Trees but also to 'the significant Star'. The meaning of this is nowhere explained. Beside it he wrote Signifer, and many experimental Elvish names, as Taengyl, Tengyl, Tannacolli or Tankol, Tainacolli; also a verbal root tana 'show, indicate'; tanna 'sign'; and kolla 'borne, worn, especially a vestment or cloak', with the note 'Sindikoll-o is masculinized'. III. This very brief and hasty statement was found in a small collection of such notes folded in a newspaper of April 1959. It was written on a slip of paper torn from a bill from Merton College dated in June 1955; a similar bill of October 1955 was used for a passage of drafting for the Athrabeth (p. 352). I have noticed (p. 304) that the use of such documents of the year 1955 might suggest that the Athrabeth was not the work of a single concentrated period, although if my father had prepared a supply of such slips for brief notes or passages of drafting and other purposes the date would be misleading. What happened in Valinor after the Death of the Trees? Aman was 'unveiled' - it had been covered with a dome (made by Varda) of mist or cloud down through which no sight would pierce nor light. This dome was lit by stars - in imitation of the great Firmament of Ea. This now rendered Valinor dark except for starlight [i.e. after the death of the Trees]. It was removed and Aman was lit by the Sun - its blessing was thus removed. (Melkor's defilement of the Sun must thus precede the Two Trees which had light of Sun and Stars before Melkor [?tainted] it - or the Trees [?could ?would] be lit by light before the [?Turbulence] of Melkor.) I do not feel altogether certain of the meaning of the extremely elliptical concluding sentence in brackets, but it should perhaps be interpreted thus - as the statement of a problem arising from what has been said. The Dome of Varda must have been contrived after the ravishing of Arie by Melkor, in order to keep out the Sun's polluted light,(1) and Aman was lit beneath the Dome by the Two Trees. But on the other hand, it is an essential idea that the light of the Trees was derived from the Sun before it was 'tainted'. A resolution of this conflict may be found (reading 'could', not 'would', in the last phrase) in the idea that the light of the Trees was an unsullied light preserved by Varda from a time before the assaults of Melkor. In the initial discussion in text II it is made clear that the Sun had been defiled before the Two Trees came into being: 'Now one of the objects of the Trees... was the healing of the hurts of Melkor' (p. 377); but it is also said that 'Varda has preserved some of the Primeval Light... The Two Trees are made.' This appears to be the solution to which my father came in the present text, thus suggesting that it preceded text II. On the other hand, there is no suggestion of the Dome of Varda in text II, and that text gives the impression that my father was beginning a new story, working it out as he went. It is probably vain to try to establish a clear sequence of composition from these papers, since he might return to the same problem and find what appears to be the same resolution at different times. It is a notable fact that the Dome of Varda appears in my father's final work on the narrative text of the Quenta Silmarillion Chapter 6 (p. 286, $57). Where in AAm (p. 98, $108) it was told that Melkor, with Ungoliante beside him, looked out from the summit of Mount Hyarantar and 'saw afar ... the silver domes of Valmar gleaming in the mingling of the lights of Telperion and Laurelin', in the Quenta Silmarillion Ungoliante (now, in the changed story, lying on the summit alone) 'saw the glimmer of the stars in the dome of Varda and the radiance of Valmar far away.' Thus when later in the final rewriting ('The Rape of the Silmarils', p. 293, $1) it is told that above the Valar sitting in the Ring of Doom 'the stars of Varda now glimmered overhead', it must be the stars of the Dome that were glimmering.(2) NOTES. 1. But in text IV (p. 388) it is said that the Dome of Varda was made 'to keep out any spirits or spies of Melkor'. 2. In the corresponding passage in the Annals of Aman (p. 106, $117) it is said: 'the gods sat in shadow, for it was night. But now night only as it may be in some land of the world, when the stars peer fitfully through the wrack of great clouds, and cold fogs drift in from a sullen shore of the sea.' In the published Silmarillion the final text ('the stars of Varda now glimmered overhead') was used; this does not indeed introduce any difficulty within the narrative, but I did not at that time perceive the significance of the words. IV There is a further statement about the Dome of Varda in a manuscript to which I have several times referred (VI.466; VIII.20; IX.73), an analysis (in intention) of all fragments of other languages found in The Lord of the Rings. The passage that I quote here comes from a long note on the song to Elbereth at the end of the chapter 'Many Meetings'. It may be mentioned incidentally that my father noted on the word menel: 'the heavens, the apparent dome of the sky. (Probably a Quenya word introduced into Sindarin. It was opposed to kemen "the Earth" as an apparent flat floor under menel. But these were "pictorial" words, as the lore of the Eldar and the Numenoreans knew much astronomy.)' The passage concerning the Dome arises from the statement that Elbereth has el- 'star' prefixed (with the note 'But since b is not mutated the name is probably to be referred to *elen-barathi > elmbereth'). The mythological association of Varda with the stars is of twofold origin. In the 'demiurgic period', before the establish- ment of Arda 'the Realm', while the Valar in general (including an unnamed host of others who never came to Arda)(1) were labouring in the general construction of Ea (the World or Universe), Varda was in Eldarin and Numenorean legend said to have designed and set in their places most of the principal stars; but being (by destiny and desire) the future Queen of Arda, in which her ultimate function lay, especially as the lover and protectress of the Quendi, she was concerned not only with the great Stars in themselves, but also in their relations to Arda, and their appearance therefrom (and their effect upon the Children to come). Such forms and major patterns, therefore, as we call (for instance) the Plough, or Orion, were said to be her designs. Thus the Valacirca or 'Sickle of the Gods', which was one of the Eldarin names for the Plough, was, it was said, intended later to be a sign of menace and threat of vengeance over the North in which Melkor took up his abode (Varda was the most foresighted of all the Valar, possessing the clearest memory of the Music and Vision in which she had played only a small part as actor or player, but had listened most attentively).(2) Later, when the Valar took refuge from Melkor, and the imminent ruin of Arda, and built and fortified Valinor in Aman, it was Varda who made the great dome above Valinor, to keep out any spirits or spies of Melkor. It was made as a simulacrum of the true firmament (Tar-menel), and the patterns were therein repeated, but with apparent stars (or 'sparks': tinwi) of greater relative size to the total visible area. So that the lesser firmament of Valinor (Nur-menel) was very brilliant. From this work (chiefly: but also her original demiurgic labours were included) she was called 'Star-kindler'. Note that Velen properly referred to the real stars of Ea (but could also naturally be transferred to their imagines). The words tinwe, nille' (Vtin 'spark', Vngil 'silver glint') and Sindarin tim, gil referred properly to the Valinorian imagines. Hence Quenya Tintalle from tinta cause to sparkle, but also Elentari Queen of Stars'; Sindarin Elbereth, but also Gilthoniel.(3) This note on Elbereth ends with a slightly jumbled and obscure statement to the effect that Gilthoniel is derived from the stems Vngil and Vthan / than 'kindle, set light to'; iel a feminine suffix correspond- ing to male -we. These remarks on Varda seem to raise further questions. In text II (pp. 375 - 6) my father declared that 'the cosmogonic mythology should represent Arda as it is, more or less: an island in the void "amidst the innumerable stars"'; that 'the Stars, therefore, in general will be other and remoter parts of the Great Tale of Ea, which do not concern the Valar of Arda'; and that 'Varda, therefore, as one of the great Valar of Arda, cannot be said to have "kindled" the stars, as an original subcreative act - not at least the stars in general.' I have taken this to mean (p. 384 note 4) that the 'star-making' of Varda was to be confined to (at most) the making of the 'Great Stars' before the Awakening of the Elves. In the present text, on the other hand, appears the remarkable conception that the 'demiurgic' work of Varda was the making and disposition of certain 'principal' stars, which j should in ages to come, after the establishment of the Earth, be visible in its skies as figures significant of its history - the 'dramatic centre' of Ea. While I think it certain that this text comes from the late 1950s, there seems no way in which to date it more precisely either externally or in relation to other writings. NOTES. 1. Cf. text II (p. 378): 'Others there were, countless to our thought..., whose labour lay elsewhere and in other regions and histories of the Great Tale, amid stars remote and worlds beyond the reach of the furthest thought.' 2. It is a curious point that what is said here of Varda's part in the Music of the Ainur is largely repeated from what is told of Nienna in the 'lost' typescript of the beginning of the Annals of Aman (AAm*, p. 68, $26). There it is told of her that she 'took little part' in the Music, but 'listened intent to all that she heard. Therefore she was rich in memory, and farsighted, perceiving how the themes should unfold in the Tale of Arda.' 3. It is interesting to compare what is said here about the names of Varda with what my father said on the subject in a note dated 3 February 1938 (V.200): 'Tintalle' Kindler can stand - but tinwe' in Quenya only = spark (tinta- to kindle). Therefore Tinwerina > Elerina, Tinwerontar > Elentari'. V. This brief comment, entitled 'Sun The Trees Silmarils', is found on a single sheet, together with other more substantial writings similar in appearance, preserved in a folded newspaper of November 1958. The making of the Sun after the Death of the Trees is not only impossible 'mythology' now - especially since the Valar must be supposed to know the truth about the structure of Ea (and not make mythical guesses like Men) and to have communicated this to the Eldar (and so to Numenoreans!) - it is also im- possible chronologically in the Narrative. The Sun existed as part of the Kingdom of Arda. In so far as there was darkness (and diminishment of growth in Arda consequently) when the Valar removed to Aman it was due to obscurations devised by Melkor: clouds and smokes (a volcanic era!). The Sun was the immediate source of the light of Arda. The Blessedness of the Trees (as compared with other growing things later) was that they were kindled and illumined with the light of the Sun and Moon before these were tainted. The attack of Melkor on the Sun (and Moon) must therefore be subsequent to the establishment of Valinor, and be Melkor's effort to produce darkness. Since the Silmarils were kindled from the Trees after the Death of the Trees, this 'light of the Unmarred Sun' remained only in them. In text III, my father's note on the removal of the Dome of Varda after the death of the Trees, he was confronted by the problem (if my analysis of his meaning is correct, p. 386) that 'Melkor's defilement of the Sun must precede the Two Trees', whereas the light of the Trees was derived from the unsullied light of the Sun and Moon. Here he concludes that 'the attack of Melkor on the Sun (and Moon) must be subsequent to the establishment of Valinor'. The word after in the concluding sentence is no more than a slip in extremely rapid writing. :i VI. This text, entitled Melkor with Morgoth written beneath, is from the same collection as is text III (found in a newspaper dated April 1959), and was written on four slips made from further copies of the same Merton College documents dated June 1955 as is the draft A of the Athrabeth (pp. 350 - 2). The slip on which text III is written carries also preliminary drafting for the present essay on Melkor. It is notable that text VI begins with a reference to 'Finrod and Andreth', which was therefore in existence, at least in some form. Melkor Morgoth. Melkor must be made far more powerful in original nature (cf. 'Finrod and Andreth'). The greatest power under Eru (sc. the greatest created power).(1) (He was to make I devise I begin; Manwe (a little less great) was to improve, carry out, complete.) Later, he must not be able to be controlled or 'chained' by all the Valar combined. Note that in the early age of Arda he was alone able to drive the Valar out of Middle-earth into retreat. The war against Utumno was only undertaken by the Valar with reluctance, and without hope of real victory, but rather as a covering action or diversion, to enable them to get the Quendi out of his sphere of influence. But Melkor had already pro- gressed some way towards becoming 'the Morgoth, a tyrant (or central tyranny and will), + his agents'.(2) Only the total contained the old power of the complete Melkor; so that if 'the Morgoth' could be reached or temporarily separated from his agents he was much more nearly controllable and on a power- level with the Valar. The Valar find that they can deal with his agents (sc. armies, Balrogs, etc.) piecemeal. So that they come at last to Utumno itself and find that 'the Morgoth' has no longer for the moment sufficient 'force' (in any sense) to shield himself from direct personal contact. Manwe at last faces Melkor again, as he has not done since he entered Arda. Both are amazed: Manwe to perceive the decrease in Melkor as a person; Melkor to perceive this also from his own point of view: he has now less personal force than Manwe, and can no longer daunt him with his gaze. Either Manwe must tell him so or he must himself suddenly realize (or both) that this has happened: he is 'dispersed'. But the lust to have creatures under him, dominated, has become habitual and necessary to Melkor, so that even if the process was reversible (possibly was by absolute and unfeigned self- abasement and repentance only) he cannot bring himself to do it.* As with all other characters there must be a trembling moment when it is in the balance: he nearly repents - and does not, and becomes much wickeder, and more foolish. Possibly (and he thinks it possible) he could now at that moment be humiliated against his own will and 'chained' - if and before his dispersed forces reassemble. So - as soon as he has mentally rejected repentance - he (just like Sauron after- wards on this model) makes a mockery of self-abasement and repentance. From which actually he gets a kind of perverted pleasure as in desecrating something holy - [for the mere contemplating of the possibility of genuine repentance, if that did not come specially then as a direct grace from Eru, was at least one last flicker of his true primeval nature.](3) He feigns remorse and repentance. He actually kneels before Manwe and surrenders - in the first instance to avoid being chained by the Chain Angainor, which once upon him he fears would not ever be able to be shaken off. But also suddenly he has the idea of (* [footnote to the text] One of the reasons for his self-weakening is that he has given to his 'creatures', Orcs, Balrogs, etc. power of recuperation and multiplication. So that they will gather again without further specific orders. Part of his native creative power has gone out into making an independent evil growth out of his control.) penetrating the vaunted fastness of Valinor, and ruining it. So he offers to become 'the least of the Valar' and servant of them each and all, to help (in advice and skill) in repairing all the evils and hurts he has done. It is this offer which seduces or deludes Manwe - Manwe must be shown to have his own inherent fault (though not sin):* he has become engrossed (partly out of sheer fear of Melkor, partly out of desire to control him) in amend- ment, healing, re-ordering - even 'keeping the status quo' - to the loss of all creative power and even to weakness in dealing with difficult and perilous situations. Against the advice of some of the Valar (such as Tulkas) he grants Melkor's prayer. Melkor is taken back to Valinor going last (save for Tulkas + who follows bearing Angainor and clinking it to remind Melkor). But at the council Melkor is not given immediate freedom. The Valar in assembly will not tolerate this. Melkor is remitted to Mandos (to stay there in 'reclusion' and meditate, and complete his repentance - and also his plans for redress).(4) Then he begins to doubt the wisdom of his own policy, and would have rejected it all and burst out into flaming rebellion - but he is now absolutely isolated from his agents and in enemy territory. He cannot. Therefore he swallows the bitter pill (but it greatly increases his hate, and he ever afterward accused Manwe of being faithless). The rest of the story, with Melkor's release, and permission to attend the Council sitting at the feet of Manwe (after the pattern of evil counsellors in later tales, which it could be said derive from this primeval model?), can then proceed more or less as already told. In this short essay it is seen that in his reflections on the nature of Melkor, the vastness of his primeval power and its 'dispersion', my (* [footnote to the text] Every finite creature must have some weakness: that is some inadequacy to deal with some situations. It is not sinful when not willed, and when the creature does his best (even if it is not what should be done) as he sees it - with the conscious intent of serving Eru.) (+ [footnote to the text] Tulkas represents the good side of 'violence' in the war against evil. This is an absence of all compromise which will even face apparent evils (such as war) rather than parley; and does not (in any kind of pride) think that any one less than Eru can redress this, or rewrite the tale of Arda.) father had been led to propose certain important alterations in the narrative of the legends as told in the Quenta Silmarillion (pp. 161, 186) and in the Annals of Aman (pp. 75, 80, 93). In the narrative as it stood, and as it remained,(5) there was no suggestion that Melkor feigned repentance when (no longer able to 'daunt him with his gaze') he faced Manwe in Utumno - already harbouring 'the idea of penetrating the vaunted fastness of Valinor, and ruining it'. On the contrary, 'Tulkas stood forth as the champion of the Valar and wrestled with him and cast him upon his face, and bound him with the chain Angainor'(6) (an ancient element, going back to the richly pictorial and 'primitive' account in the story of 'The Chaining of Melko' in The Book of Lost Tales, 1.100 - 4). Moreover, in the present text it was now, defeated at Utumno, that Melkor offered to become 'the least of the Valar', and to aid them in the redress of all the evils that he had brought to pass, whereas in the narratives he did this when he came before the Valar after he had endured the ages of his incarcera- tion in Mandos and sued for pardon. Of Manwe it was said, when Melkor was allowed to go freely about Valinor, that he believed that his evil was cured: 'for he himself was free from the evil and could not comprehend it'. No such flaw or 'inherent fault' in Manwe as is described in this essay was suggested;(7) although it was told that Ulmo, and Tulkas, doubted the wisdom of such clemency (and this too is an element that goes back to The Book of Lost Tales: 'Such was the doom of Manwe... albeit Tulkas and Palurien thought it merciful to peril' (I.105)). NOTES. 1. Cf. Finrod's words in the Athrabeth (p. 322): 'there is no power conceivable greater than Melkor save Eru only'. 2. The earliest reference to the idea of the 'dispersion' of Melkor's original power is found in the Annals of Aman $179 (p. 133): For as he grew in malice, and sent forth from himself the evil that he conceived in lies and creatures of wickedness, his power passed into them and was dispersed, and he himself became ever more earth-bound, unwilling to issue from his dark strongholds. Cf. also Annals $128 (p. 110). - The expression 'the Morgoth' is used several times by Finrod in the Athrabeth. 3. The square brackets were put in after the writing of the passage. 4. 'his plans for redress': i.e. redress of the evils he has brought about. 5. The second passage in QS, in which the pardon of Melkor is recounted (p. 186, $48), was changed in the final rewriting of Chapter 6: see p. 273, $48. But though the changed text intro- duced the ideas that any complete reversal of the evils brought about by Melkor was impossible, and that he was 'in his beginning the greatest of the Powers', the narrative was not altered in respect of changes envisaged in this essay (see note 7). 6. Alteration to the old story of the encounter at Utumno might have entered if QS Chapter 3 (in which this is recounted) had formed a part of the late rewriting that transformed the old Chapter 6; but see note 7. 7. In the final rewriting of QS Chapter 6 (p. 273, $48) this remained the case (note 5); and the original story was also retained that it was in Valinor after his imprisonment, not at Utumno, that Melkor made his promises of service and reparation. This might suggest that the present essay was written after the new work on QS (almost certainly dating from the end of the 1950s, p. 300), supporting the idea that the date of the documents on which the essay was written (1955) is misleading (see p. 385). VII. This essay is found in two forms. The earlier ('A') is a fairly brief text of four pages in manuscript, titled 'Some notes on the "philosophy" of the Silmarillion'; it is rapidly expressed and does not have a clear ending. The second ('B') is a greatly expanded version of twelve pages, also in manuscript, of far more careful expression and beginning in fine script, but breaking off unfinished, indeed in the middle of a sentence. This is titled 'Notes on motives in the Silmarillion'. The relation between the two forms is such that for most of its length there is no need to give any of the text of A, for all of its content is found embedded in B. From the point (p. 401) where the Valar are condemned for the raising of the Pelori, however, the texts diverge. In B my father introduced a long palliation of the conduct of the Valar, and the essay breaks off before the matter of the concluding section of A was reached (see note 6); this is therefore given at the end of B. The text of B was subsequently divided and lettered as three distinct sections, here numbered (i), (ii), and (iii). Notes on motives in the Silmarillion. (i) Sauron was 'greater', effectively, in the Second Age than Morgoth at the end of the First. Why? Because, though he was far smaller by natural stature, he had not yet fallen so low. Eventually he also squandered his power (of being) in the endeavour to gain control of others. But he was not obliged to expend so much of himself. To gain domination over Arda, Morgoth had let most of his being pass into the physical constituents of the Earth - hence all things that were born on Earth and lived on and by it, beasts or plants or incarnate spirits, were liable to be 'stained'. Morgoth at the time of the War of the Jewels had become permanently 'incarnate': for this reason he was afraid, and waged the war almost entirely by means of devices, or of subordinates and dominated creatures. Sauron, however, inherited the 'corruption' of Arda, and only spent his (much more limited) power on the Rings; for it was the creatures of earth, in their minds and wills, that he desired to dominate. In this way Sauron was also wiser than Melkor- Morgoth. Sauron was not a beginner of discord; and he probably knew more of the 'Music' than did Melkor, whose mind had always been filled with his own plans and devices, and gave little attention to other things. The time of Melkor's greatest power, therefore, was in the physical beginnings of the World; a vast demiurgic lust for power and the achievement of his own will and designs, on a great scale. And later after things had become more stable, Melkor was more interested in and capable of dealing with a volcanic eruption, for example, than with (say) a tree. It is indeed probable that he was simply unaware of the minor or more delicate productions of Yavanna: such as small flowers.* Thus, as 'Morgoth', when Melkor was confronted by the existence of other inhabitants of Arda, with other wills and intelligences, he was enraged by the mere fact of their existence, and his only notion of dealing with them was by physical force, or the fear of it. His sole ultimate object was their destruction. Elves, and still more Men, he despised because of their 'weak- ness': that is their lack of physical force, or power over 'matter'; but he was also afraid of them. He was aware, at any rate originally when still capable of rational thought, that he could not 'annihilate'** them: that is, destroy their being; but their physical 'life', and incarnate form became increasingly to his mind the only thing that was worth considering.+ Or he (* [footnote to the text] If such things were forced upon his attention, he was angry and hated them, as coming from other minds than his own.) (**[bracketed note inserted into the text] Melkor could not, of course, 'annihilate' anything of matter, he could only ruin or destroy or corrupt the forms given to matter by other minds in their sub- creative activities.) (+ [footnote without indication of reference in the text] For this) became so far advanced in Lying that he lied even to himself, and pretended that he could destroy them and rid Arda of them altogether. Hence his endeavour always to break wills and subordinate them to or absorb them into his own will and being, before destroying their bodies. This was sheer nihilism, and negation its one ultimate object: Morgoth would no doubt, if he had been victorious, have ultimately destroyed even his own 'creatures', such as the Orcs, when they had served his sole purpose in using them: the destruction of Elves and Men. Melkor's final impotence and despair lay in this: that whereas the Valar (and in their degree Elves and Men) could still love 'Arda Marred', that is Arda with a Melkor-ingredient, and could still heal this or that hurt, or produce from its very marring, from its state as it was, things beautiful and lovely, Melkor could do nothing with Arda, which was not from his own mind and was interwoven with the work and thoughts of others: even left alone he could only have gone raging on till all was levelled again into a formless chaos. And yet even so he would have been defeated, because it would still have 'existed', independent of his own mind, and a world in potential. Sauron had never reached this stage of nihilistic madness. He did not object to the existence of the world, so long as he could do what he liked with it. He still had the relics of positive purposes, that descended from the good of the nature in which he began: it had been his virtue (and therefore also the cause of his fall, and of his relapse) that he loved order and co- ordination, and disliked all confusion and wasteful friction. (It was the apparent will and power of Melkor to effect his designs quickly and masterfully that had first attracted Sauron to him.) Sauron had, in fact, been very like Saruman, and so still understood him quickly and could guess what he would be likely to think and do, even without the aid of palantiri or of spies; whereas Gandalf eluded and puzzled him. But like all minds of this cast, Sauron's love (originally) or (later) mere understanding of other individual intelligences was correspond- ingly weaker; and though the only real good in, or rational motive for, all this ordering and planning and organization was the good of all inhabitants of Arda (even admitting Sauron's ( reason he himself came to fear 'death' - the destruction of his assumed bodily form - above everything, and sought to avoid any kind of injury to his own form.) right to be their supreme lord), his 'plans', the idea coming from his own isolated mind, became the sole object of his will, and an end, the End, in itself.* Morgoth had no 'plan': unless destruction and reduction to nil of a world in which he had only a share can be called a 'plan'. But this is, of course, a simplification of the situation. Sauron had not served Morgoth, even in his last stages, without becoming infected by his lust for destruction, and his hatred of God (which must end in nihilism). Sauron could not, of course, be a 'sincere' atheist. Though one of the minor spirits created before the world, he knew Eru, according to his measure. He probably deluded himself with the notion that the Valar (including Melkor) having failed, Eru had simply abandoned Ea, or at any rate Arda, and would not concern himself with it any more. It would appear that he interpreted the 'change of the world' at the Downfall of Numenor, when Aman was removed from the physical world, in this sense: Valar (and Elves) were removed from effective control, and Men under God's curse and wrath. If he thought about the Istari, especially Saruman and Gandalf, he imagined them as emissaries from the Valar, seeking to establish their lost power again and 'colonize' Middle-earth, as a mere effort of defeated imperialists (without knowledge or sanction of Eru). His cynicism, which (sincerely) regarded the motives of Manwe as precisely the same as his own, seemed fully justified in Saruman. Gandalf he did not understand. But certainly he had already become evil, and therefore stupid, enough to imagine that his different behaviour was due simply to weaker intelligence and lack of firm masterful purpose. He was only a rather cleverer Radagast - cleverer, because it is more profitable (more productive of power) to become absorbed in the study of people than of animals. Sauron was not a 'sincere' atheist, but he preached atheism, because it weakened resistance to himself (and he had ceased to fear God's action in Arda). As was seen in the case of Ar-Pharazon. But there was seen the effect of Melkor upon Sauron: he spoke of Melkor in Melkor's own terms: as a god, or even as God. This may have been the residue of a state which (* [footnote to the text] But his capability of corrupting other minds, and even engaging their service, was a residue from the fact that his original desire for 'order' had really envisaged the good estate (especially physical well-being) of his 'subjects'.) was in a sense a shadow of good: the ability once in Sauron at least to admire or admit the superiority of a being other than himself. Melkor, and still more Sauron himself afterwards, both profited by this darkened shadow of good and the services of 'worshippers'. But it may be doubted whether even such a shadow of good was still sincerely operative in Sauron by that time. His cunning motive is probably best expressed thus. To wean one of the God-fearing from their allegiance it is best to propound another unseen object of allegiance and another hope of benefits; propound to him a Lord who will sanction what he desires and not forbid it. Sauron, apparently a defeated rival for world-power, now a mere hostage, can hardly propound him- self; but as the former servant and disciple of Melkor, the worship of Melkor will raise him from hostage to high priest. But though Sauron's whole true motive was the destruction of the Numenoreans, this was a particular matter of revenge upon Ar-Pharazon, for humiliation. Sauron (unlike Morgoth) would have been content for the Numenoreans to exist, as his own subjects, and indeed he used a great many of them that he corrupted to his allegiance. (ii) No one, not even one of the Valar, can read the mind of other 'equal beings':* that is one cannot 'see' them or comprehend them fully and directly by simple inspection. One can deduce much of their thought, from general comparisons leading to conclusions concerning the nature and tendencies of minds and thought, and from particular knowledge of individuals, and special circumstances. But this is no more reading or inspection of another mind than is deduction concerning the contents of a closed room, or events taken place out of sight. Neither is so-called 'thought-transference' a process of mind-reading: this is but the reception, and interpretation by the receiving mind, of the impact of a thought, or thought-pattern, emanating from another mind, which is no more the mind in full or in itself than is the distant sight of a man running the man himself. Minds can exhibit or reveal themselves to other minds by the action of their (* [marginal note] All rational minds I spirits deriving direct from Eru are 'equal' - in order and status - though not necessarily 'coeval' or of like original power.) own wills (though it is doubtful if, even when willing or desiring this, a mind can actually reveal itself wholly to any other mind). It is thus a temptation to minds of greater power to govern or constrain the will of other, and weaker, minds, so as to induce or force them to reveal themselves. But to force such a revelation, or to induce it by any lying or deception, even for supposedly 'good' purposes (including the 'good' of the person so persuaded or dominated), is absolutely forbidden. To do so is a crime, and the 'good' in the purposes of those who commit this crime swiftly becomes corrupted. Much could thus 'go on behind Manwe's back': indeed the innermost being of all other minds, great and small, was hidden from him. And with regard to the Enemy, Melkor, in particular, he could not penetrate by distant mind-sight his thought and purposes, since Melkor remained in a fixed and powerful will to withhold his mind: which physically expressed took shape in the darkness and shadows that surrounded him. But Manwe could of course use, and did use, his own great knowledge, his vast experience of things and of persons, his memory of the 'Music', and his own far sight, and the tidings of his messengers. He, like Melkor, practically never is seen or heard of outside or far away from his own halls and permanent residence. Why is this? For no very profound reason. The Government is always in Whitehall. King Arthur is usually in Camelot or Caerleon, and news and adventures come there and arise there. The 'Elder King' is obviously not going to be finally defeated or destroyed, at least not before some ultimate 'Ragnarok'(1) - which even for us is still in the future, so he can have no real 'adventures'. But, if you keep him at home, the issue of any particular event (since it cannot then result in a final 'checkmate') can remain in literary suspense. Even to the final war against Morgoth it is Fionwe son of Manwe who leads out the power of the Valar. When we move out Manwe it will be the last battle, and the end of the World (or of 'Arda Marred') as the Eldar would say. [Morgoth's staying 'at home' has, as described above, quite a different reason: his fear of being killed or even hurt (the literary motive is not present, for since he is pitted against the Elder King, the issue of any one of his enterprises is always in doubt).] Melkor 'incarnated' himself (as Morgoth) permanently. He did this so as to control the hroa,(2) the 'flesh' or physical matter, of Arda. He attempted to identify himself with it. A vaster, and more perilous, procedure, though of similar sort to the opera- tions of Sauron with the Rings. Thus, outside the Blessed Realm, all 'matter' was likely to have a 'Melkor ingredient',(3) and those who had bodies, nourished by the hroa of Arda, had as it were a tendency, small or great, towards Melkor: they were none of them wholly free of him in their incarnate form, and their bodies had an effect upon their spirits. But in this way Morgoth lost (or exchanged, or transmuted) the greater part of his original 'angelic' powers, of mind and spirit, while gaining a terrible grip upon the physical world. For this reason he had to be fought, mainly by physical force, and enormous material ruin was a probable consequence of any direct combat with him, victorious or otherwise. This is the chief explanation of the constant reluctance of the Valar to come into open battle against Morgoth. Manwe's task and problem was much more difficult than Gandalf's. Sauron's, relatively smaller, power was concentrated; Morgoth's vast power was disseminated. The whole of 'Middle-earth' was Morgoth's Ring, though temporarily his attention was mainly upon the North-west. Unless swiftly successful, War against him might well end in reducing all Middle-earth to chaos, possibly even all Arda. It is easy to say: 'It was the task and function of the Elder King to govern Arda and make it possible for the Children of Eru to live in it unmolested.' But the dilemma of the Valar was this: Arda could only be liberated by a physical battle; but a probable result of such a battle was the irretrievable ruin of Arda. Moreover, the final eradication of Sauron (as a power directing evil) was achievable by the destruction of the Ring. No such eradication of Morgoth was possible, since this required the complete disintegration of the 'matter' of Arda. Sauron's power was not (for example) in gold as such, but in a particular form or shape made of a particular portion of total gold. Morgoth's power was disseminated throughout Gold, if nowhere absolute (for he did not create Gold) it was nowhere absent. (It was this Morgoth-element in matter, indeed, which was a prerequisite for such 'magic' and other evils as Sauron practised with it and upon it.) It is quite possible, of course, that certain 'elements' or conditions of matter had attracted Morgoth's special attention (mainly, unless in the remote past, for reasons of his own plans). For example, all gold (in Middle-earth) seems to have had a specially 'evil' trend - but not silver. Water is represented as being almost entirely free of Morgoth. (This, of course, does not mean that any particular sea, stream, river, well, or even vessel of water could not be poisoned or defiled - as all things could.) (iii) The Valar 'fade' and become more impotent, precisely in proportion as the shape and constitution of things becomes more defined and settled. The longer the Past, the more nearly defined the Future, and the less room for important change (untrammelled action, on a physical plane, that is not destruc- tive in purpose). The Past, once 'achieved', has become part of the 'Music in being'. Only Eru may or can alter the 'Music'. The last major effort, of this demiurgic kind, made by the Valar was the lifting up of the range of the Pelori to a great height. It is possible to view this as, if not an actually bad action, at least as a mistaken one. Ulmo disapproved of it.(4) It had one good, and legitimate, object: the preservation incorrupt of at least a part of Arda. But it seemed to have a selfish or neglectful (or despairing) motive also; for the effort to preserve the Elves incorrupt there had proved a failure if they were to be left free: many had refused to come to the Blessed Realm, many had revolted and left it. Whereas, with regard to Men, Manwe and all the Valar knew quite well that they could not come to Aman at all; and the longevity (co-extensive with the life of Arda) of Valar and Eldar was expressly not permitted to Men. Thus the 'Hiding of Valinor' came near to countering Morgoth's possessiveness by a rival possessiveness, setting up a private domain of light and bliss against one of darkness and domination: a palace and a pleasaunce (5) (well-fenced) against a fortress and a dungeon.(6) This appearance of selfish faineance in the Valar in the mythology as told is (though I have not explained it or commented on it) I think only an 'appearance', and one which we are apt to accept as the truth, since we are all in some degree affected by the shadow and lies of their Enemy, the Calum- niator. It has to be remembered that the 'mythology' is repre- sented as being two stages removed from a true record: it is based first upon Elvish records and lore about the Valar and their own dealings with them; and these have reached us (fragmentarily) only through relics of Numenorean (human) traditions, derived from the Eldar, in the earlier parts, though for later times supplemented by anthropocentric histories and tales.(7) These, it is true, came down through the 'Faithful' and their descendants in Middle-earth, but could not altogether escape the darkening of the picture due to the hostility of the rebellious Numenoreans to the Valar. Even so, and on the grounds of the stories as received, it is possible to view the matter otherwise. The closing of Valinor against the rebel Noldor (who left it voluntarily and after warning) was in itself just. But, if we dare to attempt to enter the mind of the Elder King, assigning motives and finding faults, there are things to remember before we deliver a judgement. Manwe was the spirit of greatest wisdom and prudence in Arda. He is represented as having had the greatest knowledge of the Music, as a whole, possessed by any one finite mind; and he alone of all persons or minds in that time is represented as having the power of direct recourse to and communication with Eru. He must have grasped with great clarity what even we may perceive dimly: that it was the essential mode of the process of 'history' in Arda that evil should constantly arise, and that out of it new good should constantly come. One especial aspect of this is the strange way in which the evils of the Marrer, or his inheritors, are turned into weapons against evil. If we consider the situation after the escape of Morgoth and the reestablish- ment of his abode in Middle-earth, we shall see that the heroic Noldor were the best possible weapon with which to keep Mor- goth at bay, virtually besieged, and at any rate fully occupied, on the northern fringe of Middle-earth, without provoking him to a frenzy of nihilistic destruction. And in the meanwhile, Men, or the best elements in Mankind, shaking off his shadow, came into contact with a people who had actually seen and experi- enced the Blessed Realm. In their association with the warring Eldar Men were raised to their fullest achievable stature, and by the two marriages the transference to them, or infusion into Mankind, of the noblest Elf-strain was accomplished, in readiness for the still distant, but inevitably approaching, days when the Elves would 'fade'. The last intervention with physical force by the Valar, ending in the breaking of Thangorodrim, may then be viewed as not in fact reluctant or even unduly delayed, but timed with precision. The intervention came before the annihilation of the Eldar and the Edain. Morgoth though locally triumphant had neglected most of Middle-earth during the war; and by it he had in fact been weakened: in power and prestige (he had lost and failed to recover one of the Silmarils), and above all in mind. He had become absorbed in 'kingship', and though a tyrant of ogre-size and monstrous power, this was a vast fall even from his former wickedness of hate, and his terrible nihilism. He had fallen to like being a tyrant-king with conquered slaves, and vast obe- dient armies.(8) The war was successful, and ruin was limited to the small (if beautiful) region of Beleriand. Morgoth was thus actually made captive in physical form,(9) and in that form taken as a mere criminal to Aman and delivered to Namo Mandos as judge - and executioner. He was judged, and eventually taken out of the Blessed Realm and executed: that is killed like one of the Incarnates. It was then made plain (though it must have been understood beforehand by Manwe and Namo) that, though he had 'disseminated' his power (his evil and possessive and rebellious will) far and wide into the matter of Arda, he had lost direct control of this, and all that 'he', as a surviving remnant of integral being, retained as 'himself' and under control was the terribly shrunken and reduced spirit that inhabited his self- imposed (but now beloved) body. When that body was des- troyed he was weak and utterly 'houseless', and for that time at a loss and 'unanchored' as it were. We read that he was then thrust out into the Void.(10) That should mean that he was put outside Time and Space, outside Ea altogether; but if that were so this would imply a direct intervention of Eru (with or without supplication of the Valar). It may however refer inaccurately * to the extrusion or flight of his spirit from Arda. In any case, in seeking to absorb or rather to infiltrate himself throughout 'matter', what was then left of him was no longer powerful enough to reclothe itself. (It would now remain fixed in the desire to do so: there was no 'repentance' or possibility of it: Melkor had abandoned for ever all 'spiritual' ambitions, and existed almost solely as a desire to possess and dominate matter, and Arda in particular.) At least it could not yet reclothe itself. We need not suppose that Manwe was deluded into supposing that this had been a war to end war, or (* [footnote to the text] Since the minds of Men (and even of the Elves) were inclined to confuse the 'Void', as a conception of the state of Not-being, outside Creation or Ea, with the conception of vast spaces within Ea, especially those conceived to lie all about the enisled 'Kingdom of Arda' (which we should probably call the Solar System).) even to end Melkor. Melkor was not Sauron. We speak of him being 'weakened, shrunken, reduced'; but this is in comparison with the great Valar. He had been a being of immense potency and life. The Elves certainly held and taught that fear or 'spirits' may grow of their own life (independently of the body), even as they may be hurt and healed, be diminished and renewed.(11) The dark spirit of Melkor's 'remainder' might be expected, there- fore, eventually and after long ages to increase again, even (as some held) to draw back into itself some of its formerly dissipated power. It would do this (even if Sauron could not) because of its relative greatness. It did not repent, or turn finally away from its obsession, but retained still relics of wisdom, so that it could still seek its object indirectly, and not merely blindly. It would rest, seek to heal itself, distract itself by other thoughts and desires and devices - but all simply to recover enough strength to return to the attack on the Valar, and to its old obsession. As it grew again it would become, as it were, a dark shadow, brooding on the confines of Arda, and yearning towards it. Nonetheless the breaking of Thangorodrim and the extrusion of Melkor was the end of 'Morgoth' as such, and for that age (and many ages after). It was thus, also, in a sense the end of Manwe s prime function and task as Elder King, until the End. He had been the Adversary of the Enemy. It is very reasonable to suppose that Manwe knew that before long (as he saw 'time') the Dominion of Men must begin, and the making of history would then be committed to them: for their struggle with Evil special arrangements had been made! Manwe knew of Sauron, of course. He had commanded Sauron to come before him for judgement, but had left room for repentance and ultimate rehabilitation. Sauron had refused and had fled into hiding. Sauron, however, was a problem that Men had to deal with finally: the first of the many concentrations of Evil into definite power-points that they would have to combat, as it was also the last of those in 'mythological' personalized (but non-human) form. It may be noted that Sauron's first defeat was achieved by the Numenoreans alone (though Sauron was not in fact overthrown personally: his 'captivity' was voluntary and a trick). In the first overthrow and disembodiment of Sauron in Middle-earth (neglecting the matter of Luthien) (12) Here the long version B breaks off, at the foot of a page. I give now the conclusion of version A from the point where the texts diverge (see p. 394 and note 6), beginning with the sentence corresponding to B (p. 401) 'The last major effort, of this demiurgic kind, made by the Valar...' The last effort of this sort made by the Valar was the raising up of the Pelori - but this was not a good act: it came near to countering Morgoth in his own way - apart from the element of selfishness in its object of preserving Aman as a blissful region to live in. The Valar were like architects working with a plan 'passed' by the Government. They became less and less important (structurally!) as the plan was more and more nearly achieved. Even in the First Age we see them after uncounted ages of work near the end of their time of work - not wisdom or counsel. (The wiser they became the less power they had to do anything - save by counsel.) Similarly the Elves faded, having introduced 'art and science'.(13) Men will also 'fade', if it proves to be the plan that things shall still go on, when they have completed their func- tion. But even the Elves had the notion that this would not be so: that the end of Men would somehow be bound up with the end of history, or as they called it 'Arda Marred' (Arda Sahta), and the achievement of 'Arda Healed' (Arda Envinyanta).(14) (They do not seem to have been clear or precise - how should they be! - whether Arda Envinyanta was a permanent state of achievement, which could therefore only be enjoyed 'outside Time', as it were: surveying the Tale as an englobed whole; or a state of unmarred bliss within Time and in a 'place' that was in some sense a lineal and historical descent of our world or 'Arda Marred'. They seem often to have meant both. 'Arda Unmarred' did not actually exist, but remained in thought - Arda without Melkor, or rather without the effects of his becoming evil; but is the source from which all ideas of order and perfection are derived. 'Arda Healed' is thus both the completion of the 'Tale of Arda' which has taken up all the deeds of Melkor, but must according to the promise of Iluvatar be seen to be good; and also a state of redress and bliss beyond the 'circles of the world'.) (15) Evil is fissiparous. But itself barren. Melkor could not 'beget', or have any spouse (though he attempted to ravish Arien, this was to destroy and distain'(16) her, not to beget fiery offspring). Out of the discords of the Music - sc. not directly out of either of the themes,(17) Eru's or Melkor's, but of their dissonance with regard one to another - evil things appeared in Arda, which did not descend from any direct plan or vision of Melkor: they were not 'his children'; and therefore, since all evil hates, hated him too. The progeniture of things was corrupted. Hence Orcs? Part of the Elf-Man idea gone wrong. Though as for Orcs, the Eldar believed Morgoth had actually 'bred' them by capturing Men (and Elves) early and increasing to the utmost any corrupt tendencies they possessed. Despite its incomplete state (whether due to the loss of the con- clusion of the fully developed form of the essay or to its abandonment, see note 6) this is the most comprehensive account that my father wrote of how, in his later years, he had come to 'interpret' the nature of Evil in his mythology; never elsewhere did he write any such exposition of the nature of Morgoth, of his decline, and of his corruption of Arda, nor draw out the distinction between Morgoth and Sauron: 'the whole of Middle-earth was Morgoth's Ring'. To place this essay in sequential relation to the other 'philosophical' or 'theological' writings given in this book with any certainty seems scarcely possible, though Fionwe son of Manwe on p. 399 (for Eonwe herald of Manwe') may suggest that it stands relatively early among them (see pp. 151 - 2). It shows a marked likeness in tone to the many letters of exposition that my father wrote in the later 1950s, and indeed it seems to me very possible that the correspondence which followed the publication of The Lord of the Rings played a significant part in the development of his examination of the 'images and events' of the mythology.(18) NOTES. 1. Ragnarok: 'the Doom of the Gods' (Old Norse): see IX.286. 2. hroa: so written here and at the second occurrence below (and in text A), not as elsewhere always hroa, where it means the body of an incarnate being. The word used for 'physical matter' in Laws and Customs was hron, later changed to orma (p. 218 and note 26); in the Commentary on the Athrabeth and in the 'Glossary' of names the word is erma (pp. 338, 349). 3. On this sentence see p. 271. 4. Overt condemnation, strongly expressed, of the Valar for the Hiding of Valinor is found in the story of that name in The Book of Lost Tales (1.208 - 9), but disappears in the later versions. Of the old story I noted (1.223) that 'in The Silmarillion there is no vestige of the tumultuous council, no suggestion of a disagree- ment among the Valar, with Manwe, Varda and Ulmo actively disapproving the work and holding aloof from it', and I com- mented: It is most curious to observe that the action of the Valar here sprang essentially from indolence mixed with fear. Nowhere does my father's early conception of the faineant Gods appear more clearly. He held moreover quite explicitly that their failure to make war upon Melko then and there was a deep error, diminishing themselves, and (as it appears) irreparable. In his later writing the Hiding of Valinor remained indeed, but only as a great fact of mythological antiquity; there is no whisper of its condemnation. The last words refer to the actual Silmarillion narratives. Ulmo's disapproval now reappears, and is a further evidence of his isolation in the counsels of the Valar (see p. 253 note 11); cf. his words to Tuor at Vinyamar (having spoken to him, among other things, of 'the hiding of the Blessed Realm', though what he said is not told): Therefore, though in the days of this darkness I seem to oppose the will of my brethren, the Lords of the West, that is my part among them, to which I was appointed ere the making of the World' (Unfinished Tales p. 29). 5. pleasaunce (= pleasance): a 'pleasure-garden'. My father used this word several times in The Book of Lost Tales (see 1.275, pleasance), for example of the gardens of Lorien. 6. At this point my father wrote on the manuscript later: 'See original short form on Fading of Elves (and Men)'. See p. 394. This seems a clear indication that B was not completed, or that if it was its conclusion was early lost. 7. Cf. the statement on this subject in the brief text I, p. 370. 8. Since this discussion is introduced in justification of the Hiding of Valinor, the bearing of the argument seems to be that the history of Middle-earth in the last centuries of the First Age would not have been possible of achievement had Valinor remained open to the return of the Noldor. 9. As, of course, had happened to Melkor long before, after the sack of Utumno. 10. Cf. the conclusion of QS (V.332, $29): 'But Morgoth himself the Gods thrust through the Door of Night into the Timeless Void, beyond the Walls of the World'. 11. The following was added marginally after the page was written: If they do not sink below a certain level. Since no fea can be annihilated, reduced to zero or not-existing, it is no[t] clear what is meant. Thus Sauron was said to have fallen below the point of ever recovering, though he had previously recovered. What is probably meant is that a 'wicked' spirit becomes fixed in a certain desire or ambition, and if it cannot repent then this desire becomes virtually its whole being. But the desire may be wholly beyond the weakness it has fallen to, and it will then be unable to withdraw its attention from the unobtainable desire, j even to attend to itself. It will then remain for ever in impotent desire or memory of desire. 12. A reference to the legend of the defeat of Sauron by Luthien and Huan on the isle of Tol-in-Gaurhoth, where Beren was impris- oned (The Silmarillion pp. 174 - 5). 13. Cf. Letters no.181 (1956): 'In this mythological world the Elves and Men are in their incarnate forms kindred, but in the relation of their "spirits" to the world in time represent different "experiments", each of which has its own natural trend, and weakness. The Elves represent, as it were, the artistic, aesthetic, 1 and purely scientific aspects of the Humane nature raised to a higher level than is actually seen in Men.' 14. In the text FM 2 of 'Finwe and Miriel' (p. 254, footnote) 'Arda Marred' is Arda Hastaina. Arda Envinyanta, at both occurrences, was first written Arda Vincarna. 15. With this passage in brackets cf. especially note (iii) at the end of Laws and Customs (p. 251); also pp. 245, 254 (footnote), 318. 16. distain: an archaic verb meaning 'stain', 'discolour', 'defile'. 17. The Three Themes of Iluvatar in the Music of the Ainur are here treated as a single theme, in opposition to the discordant 'theme' of Melkor. 18. In a letter of June 1957 (Letters no.200) he wrote: I am sorry if this all seems dreary and 'pompose'. But so do all attempts to 'explain' the images and events of a mythology. Naturally the stories come first. But it is, I suppose, some test of the consistency of a mythology as such, if it is capable of some ] sort of rational or rationalized explanation. VIII. In the last sentence of the original short version of text VII (p. 406) my father wrote that the Eldar believed that Morgoth bred the Orcs 'by capturing Men (and Elves) early' (i.e. in the early days of their existence). This indicates that his views on this subject had changed since the Annals of Aman. For the theory of the origin of the Orcs as it stood, in point of written record in the narratives,(1) at this time see AAm $42 - 5 (pp. 72-4, and commentary p. 78), and $127 (pp. 109 - 10, and commentary pp. 123 - 4). In the final form in AAm (p. 74) 'this is held true by the wise of Eressea': all those of the Quendi that came into the hands of Melkor, ere Utumno was broken, were put there in prison, and by slow arts of cruelty and wickedness were corrupted and enslaved. Thus did Melkor breed the hideous race of the Orkor in envy and mockery of the Eldar, of whom they were afterwards the bitterest foes. For the Orkor had life and multiplied after the manner of the Children of Iluvatar; and naught that had life of its own, nor the semblance thereof, could ever Melkor make since his rebellion in the Ainulin- dale before the Beginning: so say the wise. On the typescript of AAm my father noted against the account of the origin of the Orcs: 'Alter this. Orcs are not Elvish' (p. 80). The present text, entitled 'Orcs', is a short essay (very much a record of 'thinking with the pen') found in the same small collection gathered in a newspaper of 1959 as texts III and VI. Like them it was written on Merton College papers of 1955; and like text VI it makes reference to 'Finrod and Andreth' (see pp. 385, 390). Orcs. Their nature and origin require more thought. They are not easy to work into the theory and system. (1). As the case of Aule and the Dwarves shows, only Eru could make creatures with independent wills, and with reason- ing powers. But Orcs seem to have both: they can try to cheat Morgoth / Sauron, rebel against him, or criticize him. (2). ? Therefore they must be corruptions of something pre-existing. (3). But Men had not yet appeared, when the Orcs already existed. Aule constructed the Dwarves out of his memory of the Music; but Eru would not sanction the work of Melkor so as to allow the independence of the Orcs. (Not unless Orcs were ultimately remediable, or could be amended and 'saved'?) It also seems clear (see 'Finrod and Andreth') that though Melkor could utterly corrupt and ruin individuals, it is not possible to contemplate his absolute perversion of a whole people, or group of peoples, and his making that state heritable.(2) [Added later: This latter must (if a fact) be an act of Eru.] In that case Elves, as a source, are very unlikely. And are Orcs 'immortal', in the Elvish sense? Or trolls? It seems clearly implied in The Lord of the Rings that trolls existed in their own right, but were 'tinkered' with by Melkor.(3) (4). What of talking beasts and birds with reasoning and speech? These have been rather lightly adopted from less 'serious' mythologies, but play a part which cannot now be excised. They are certainly 'exceptions' and not much used, but sufficiently to show they are a recognized feature of the world. All other creatures accept them as natural if not common. But true 'rational' creatures, 'speaking peoples', are all of human / 'humanoid' form. Only the Valar and Maiar are intelligences that can assume forms of Arda at will. Huan and Sorontar could be Maiar - emissaries of Manwe.(4) But unfortu- nately in The Lord of the Rings Gwaehir and Landroval are said to be descendants of Sorontar.(5) In any case is it likely or possible that even the least of the Maiar would become Orcs? Yes: both outside Arda and in it, before the fall of Utumno. Melkor had corrupted many spirits - some great, as Sauron, or less so, as Balrogs. The least could have been primitive (and much more powerful and perilous) Orcs; but by practising when embodied procreation they would (cf. Melian) [become] more and more earthbound, unable to return to spirit-state (even demon-form), until released by death (killing), and they would dwindle in force. When released they would, of course, like Sauron, be 'damned': i.e. reduced to impotence, infinitely recessive: still hating but unable more and more to make it effective physically (or would not a very dwindled dead Orc-state be a poltergeist?). But again - would Eru provide fear for such creatures? For the Eagles etc. perhaps. But not for Orcs.(6) It does however seem best to view Melkor's corrupting power as always starting, at least, in the moral or theological level. Any creature that took him for Lord (and especially those v ho blasphemously called him Father or Creator) became soon corrupted in all parts of its being, the fea dragging down the hroa in its descent into Morgothism: hate and destruction. As for Elves being 'immortal': they in fact only had enormously long lives, and were themselves physically 'wearing out', and suffering a slow progressive weakening of their bodies. In summary: I think it must be assumed that 'talking' is not necessarily the sign of the possession of a 'rational soul' or fea.(7) The Orcs were beasts of humanized shape (to mock Men and Elves) deliberately perverted I converted into a more close resemblance to Men. Their 'talking' was really reeling off 'records' set in them by Melkor. Even their rebellious critical words - he knew about them. Melkor taught them speech and as they bred they inherited this; and they had just as much independence as have, say, dogs or horses of their human masters. This talking was largely echoic (cf. parrots). In The Lord of the Rings Sauron is said to have devised a language for them.(8) The same sort of thing may be said of Huan and the Eagles: they were taught language by the Valar, and raised to a higher level - but they still had no fear. But Finrod probably went too far in his assertion that Melkor could not wholly corrupt any work of Eru, or that Eru would (necessarily) interfere to abrogate the corruption, or to end the being of His own creatures because they had been corrupted and fallen into evil.(9) It remains therefore terribly possible there was an Elvish strain in the Orcs.(10) These may then even have been mated with beasts (sterile!) - and later Men. Their life-span would be diminished. And dying they would go to Mandos and be held in prison till the End. The text as written ends here, but my father subsequently added the following passage. The words with which it opens are a reference to text Vl, Melkor Morgoth (p. 390). See 'Melkor'. It will there be seen that the wills of Orcs and Balrogs etc. are part of Melkor's power 'dispersed'. Their spirit is one of hate. But hate is non-cooperative (except under direct fear). Hence the rebellions, mutinies, etc. when Morgoth seems far off. Orcs are beasts and Balrogs corrupted Maiar. Also (n.b.) Morgoth not Sauron is the source of Orc-wills. Sauron is just another (if greater) agent. Orcs can rebel against him without losing their own irremediable allegiance to evil (Morgoth). Aule wanted love. But of course had no thought of dispersing his power. Only Eru can give love and independence. If a finite sub-creator tries to do this he really wants absolute loving obedience, but it turns into robotic servitude and becomes evil. NOTES. 1. In a long letter to Peter Hastings of September 1954, which was not sent (Letters no.153), my father wrote as follows on the question of whether Orcs 'could have "souls" or "spirits"': ... since in my myth at any rate I do not conceive of the making of souls or spirits, things of an equal order if not an equal power to the Valar, as a possible 'delegation', I have represented at least the Orcs as pre-existing real beings on whom the Dark Lord has exerted the fullness of his power in remodelling and corrupting them, not making them.... There might be other 'makings' all the same which were more like puppets filled (only at a distance) with their maker's mind and will, or ant-like operating under direction of a queen-centre. Earlier in this letter he had quoted Frodo's words to Sam in the chapter 'The Tower of Cirith Ungol': 'The Shadow that bred them can only mock, it cannot make: not real new things of its own. I don't think it gave life to the orcs, it only ruined them and twisted them'; and he went on: 'In the legends of the Elder Days it þ is suggested that the Diabolus subjugated and corrupted some of the earliest Elves ...' He also said that the Orcs 'are fundamen- tally a race of "rational incarnate" creatures'. 2. In the Athrabeth (p. 312) Finrod declared: But never even in the night have we believed that [Melkor) could prevail against the Children of Eru. This one he might cozen, or that one he might corrupt; but to change the doom of a whole people of the Children, to rob them of their inherit- ance: if he could do that in Eru's despite, then greater and more terrible is he by far than we guessed... 3. In The Lord of the Rings Appendix F (I) it is said of Trolls: In their beginning far back in the twilight of the Elder Days, these were creatures of dull and lumpish nature and had no more language than beasts. But Sauron had made use of them, teaching them what little they could learn, and increasing their wits with wickedness. In the long letter of September 1954 cited in note 1 he wrote of them: I am not sure about Trolls. I think they are mere 'counterfeits', and hence (though here I am of course only using elements of old barbarous mythmaking that had no 'aware' metaphysic) they return to mere stone images when not in the dark. But there are other sorts of Trolls beside these rather ridiculous, if brutal, Stone-trolls, for which other origins are suggested. Of course... when you make Trolls speak you are giving them a power, which in our world (probably) connotes the possession of a 'soul'. 4. See p. 138. - At the bottom of the page bearing the brief text V (p. 389) my father jotted down the following, entirely unconnected with the matter of the text: Living things in Aman. As the Valar would robe themselves like the Children, many of the Maiar robed themselves like other lesser living things, as trees, flowers, beasts. (Huan.) 5. 'There came Gwaihir the Windlord, and Landroval his brother, greatest of all the Eagles of the North, mightiest of the descend- ants of old Thorondor' ('The Field of Cormallen' in The Return of the King). 6. At this point there is a note that begins 'Criticism of (1) (2) (3) above' (i.e. the opening points of this text, p. 409) and then refers obscurely to the 'last battle and fall of Barad-dur etc.' in The Lord of the Rings. In view of what follows my father was presumably thinking of this passage in the chapter 'Mount Doom': From all his policies and webs of fear and treachery, from all his stratagems and wars his mind shook free; and throughout his realm a tremor ran, his slaves quailed, and his armies halted, and his captains suddenly steerless, bereft of will, wavered and despaired. For they were forgotten. The note continues: They had little or no will when not actually 'attended to' by the mind of Sauron. Does their cheating and rebellion pass that possible to such animals as dogs etc.? 7. Cf. the end of the passage cited from the letter of 1954 in note 3. 8. Appendix F (I): 'It is said that the Black Speech was devised by Sauron in the Dark Years'. 9. See the citation from the Athrabeth in note 2. Finrod did not in fact assert the latter part of the opinion here attributed to him. 10. The assertion that 'it remains therefore terribly possible there was an Elvish strain in the Orcs' seems merely to contradict what has been said about their being no more than 'talking beasts' without advancing any new considerations. In the passage added at the end of the text the statement that 'Orcs are beasts' is repeated. IX. This is another and quite separate note on the origin of the Orcs, written quickly in pencil, and without any indication of date. This suggests - though it is not explicit - that the 'Orcs' were of Elvish origin. Their origin is more clearly dealt with elsewhere. One point only is certain: Melkor could not 'create' living 'creatures' of independent wills. He (and all the 'spirits' of the 'First-created', according to their measure) could assume bodily shapes; and he (and they) could dominate the minds of other creatures, including Elves and Men, by force, fear, or deceits, or sheer magnificence. The Elves from their earliest times invented and used a word or words with a base (o)rok to denote anything that caused fear and/or horror. It would originally have been applied to 'phan- toms' (spirits assuming visible forms) as well as to any independ- ently existing creatures. Its application (in all Elvish tongues) specifically to the creatures called Orks - so I shall spell it in The Silmarillion - was later. Since Melkor could not 'create' an independent species, but had immense powers of corruption and distortion of those that came into his power, it is probable that these Orks had a mixed origin. Most of them plainly (and biologically) were corruptions of Elves (and probably later also of Men). But always among them (as special servants and spies of Melkor, and as leaders) there must have been numerous corrupted minor spirits who assumed similar bodily shapes. (These would exhibit terrifying and demonic characters.) The Elves would have classed the creatures called 'trolls' (in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings) as Orcs - in character and origin - but they were larger and slower. It would seem evident that they were corruptions of primitive human types. At the bottom of the page my father wrote: 'See The Lord of the Rings Appendix p. 410'; this is the passage in Appendix F concerning Trolls. It seems possible that his opening words in this note 'This suggests - though it is not explicit - that the were of Elvish origin actually refer to the previous text given here, VIII, where he first wrote that 'Elves, as a source, are very unlikely', but later concluded that 'it remains therefore terribly possible there was an Elvish strain in the Orcs'. But if this is so, the following words 'Their origin is more clearly dealt with elsewhere' must refer to something else. He now expressly asserts the earlier view (see p. 408 and note 1) that the Orcs were in origin corrupted Elves, but observes that 'later' some were probably derived from Men. In saying this (as the last paragraph and the reference to The Lord of the Rings Appendix F suggest) he seems to have been thinking of Trolls, and specifically of the Olog-hai, the great Trolls who appeared at the end of the Third Age (as stated in Appendix F): 'That Sauron bred them none doubted, though from what stock was not known. Some held that they were not Trolls but giant Orcs; but the Olog-hai were in fashion of body and mind quite unlike even the largest of Orc-kind, whom they far sur- passed in size and power.' The conception that among the Orcs 'there must have been numerous corrupted minor spirits who assumed similar bodily shapes' appears also in text VIII (p. 410): 'Melkor had corrupted many spirits - some great, as Sauron, or less so, as Balrogs. The least could have been primitive (and much more powerful and perilous) Orcs'. X. I give here a text of an altogether different kind, a very finished essay on the origin of the Orcs. It is necessary to explain something of the relations of this text. There is a major work, which I hope to publish in The History of Middle-earth, entitled Essekenta Eldarinwa or Quendi and Eldar. It is extant in a good typescript made by my father on his later typewriter, both in top copy and carbon; and it is preceded in both copies by a manuscript page which describes the content of the work: Enquiry into the origins of the Elvish names for Elves and their varieties clans and divisions: with Appendices on their names for the other Incarnates: Men, Dwarves, and Orcs; and on their analysis of their own language, Quenya: with a note on the 'Language of the Valar'. With the appendices Quendi and Eldar runs to nearly fifty closely typed pages, and being a highly finished and lucid work is of the utmost interest. To one of the title pages my father subjoined the following: To which is added an abbreviation of the Osanwe-kenta or 'Communication of Thought' that Pengolodh set at the end of his Lammas or 'Account of Tongues' This is a separate work of eight typescript pages, separately paginated, but found together with both copies of Quendi and Eldar. In addition, and not referred to on the title-pages, there is a further typescript of four pages (also found with both copies of Quendi and Eldar) entitled Orcs; and this is the text given here. All three elements are identical in general appearance, but Orcs stands apart from the others, having no linguistic bearing; and in view of this I have thought it legitimate to abstract it and print it in this book together with the other discussions of the origin of the Orcs given as texts VIII and IX. As to the date of this complex, one of the copies is preserved in a folded newspaper of March 1960. On this my father wrote: '"Quendi and Eldar" with Appendices'; beneath is a brief list of the Appendices, the items all written at the same time, which includes both Osanwe and Origin of Orcs (the same is true of the cover of the other copy of the Quendi and Eldar complex). All the material was thus in being when the newspaper was used for this purpose, and although, as in other similar cases, this does not provide a perfectly certain terminus ad quem, there seems no reason to doubt that it belongs to 1959 - 60 (cf. p. 304). Appendix C to Quendi and Eldar, 'Elvish Names for the Orcs', is primarily concerned with etymology, but it opens with the following passage: It is not here the place to debate the question of the origin of the Orcs. They were bred by Melkor, and their breeding was the most wicked and lamentable of his works in Arda, but not the most terrible. For clearly they were meant in his malice to be a mockery of the Children of Iluvatar, wholly subservient to his will, and nursed in an unappeasable hatred of Elves and Men. The Orcs of the later wars, after the escape of Melkor- Morgoth and his return to Middle-earth, were neither spirits nor phantoms, but living creatures, capable of speech and of some crafts and organization, or at least capable of learning such things from higher creatures or from their Master. They bred and multiplied rapidly whenever left undisturbed. It is unlikely, as a consideration of the ultimate origin of this race would make clearer, that the Quendi had met any Orcs of this kind, before their finding by Orome and the separation of Eldar and Avari. But it is known that Melkor had become aware of the Quendi before the Valar began their war against him, and the joy of the Elves in Middle-earth had already been darkened by shadows of fear. Dreadful shapes had begun to haunt the borders of their dwellings, and some of their people vanished into the darkness and were heard of no more. Some of these things may have been phantoms and delusions; but some were, no doubt, shapes taken by the servants of Melkor, mocking and degrading the very forms of the Children. For Melkor had in his service great numbers of the Maiar, who had the power, as had their Master, of taking visible and tangible shape in Arda. No doubt my father was led from his words here 'It is unlikely, as a consideration of the ultimate origin of this race would make clearer, that the Quendi had met any Orcs of this kind, before their finding by Orome' to write that 'consideration' which follows here. It will be seen that one passage of this initial statement was re-used. Orcs. The origin of the Orcs is a matter of debate. Some have called them the Melkorohini, the Children of Melkor; but the wiser say: nay, the slaves of Melkor, but not his children; for Melkor had no children.(1) Nonetheless, it was by the malice of Melkor that the Orcs arose, and plainly they were meant by him to be a mockery of the Children of Eru, being bred to be wholly subservient to his will and filled with unappeasable hatred of Elves and Men. Now the Orcs of the later wars, after the escape of Melkor- Morgoth and his return to Middle-earth, were not 'spirits', nor phantoms, but living creatures, capable of speech and some crafts and organization; or at least capable of learning these things from higher creatures and from their Master. They bred and multiplied rapidly, whenever left undisturbed. So far as can be gleaned from the legends that have come down to us from our earliest days,(2) it would seem that the Quendi had never yet encountered any Orcs of this kind before the coming of Orome to Cuivienen. Those who believe that the Orcs were bred from some kind of Men, captured and perverted by Melkor, assert that it was impossible for the Quendi to have known of Orcs before the Separation and the departure of the Eldar. For though the time of the awakening of Men is not known, even the calculations of the loremasters that place it earliest do not assign it a date long before the Great March (3) began, certainly not long enough before it to allow for the corruption of Men into Orcs. On the other hand, it is plain that soon after his return Morgoth had at his command a great number of these creatures, with whom he ere long began to attack the Elves. There was still less time between his return and these first assaults for the breeding of Orcs and for the transfer of their hosts westward. This view of the origin of the Orcs thus meets with difficulties of chronology. But though Men may take comfort in this, the theory remains nonetheless the most probable. It accords with all that is known of Melkor, and of the nature and behaviour of Orcs - and of Men. Melkor was impotent to produce any living thing, but skilled in the corruption of things that did not proceed from himself, if he could dominate them. But if he had indeed attempted to make creatures of his own in imitation or mockery of the Incarnates, he would, like Aule, only have succeeded in producing puppets: his creatures would have acted only while the attention of his will was upon them, and they would have shown no reluctance to execute any command of his, even if it were to destroy themselves. But the Orcs were not of this kind. They were certainly dominated by their Master, but his dominion was by fear, and they were aware of this fear and hated him. They were indeed so corrupted that they were pitiless, and there was no cruelty or wickedness that they would not commit; but this was the corruption of independent wills, and they took pleasure in their deeds. They were capable of acting on their own, doing evil deeds unbidden for their own sport; or if Morgoth and his agents were far away, they might neglect his commands. They sometimes fought [> They hated one another and often fought] among themselves, to the detriment of Morgoth's plans. Moreover, the Orcs continued to live and breed and to carry on their business of ravaging and plundering after Morgoth was overthrown. They had other characteristics of the Incarnates also. They had languages of their own, and spoke among themselves in various tongues according to differences of breed that were discernible among them. They needed food and drink, and rest, though many were by training as tough as Dwarves in enduring hardship. They could be slain, and they were subject to disease; but apart from these ills they died and were not immortal, even according to the manner of the Quendi; indeed they appear to have been by nature short-lived compared with the span of Men of higher race, such as the Edain. This last point was not well understood in the Elder Days. For Morgoth had many servants, the oldest and most potent of whom were immortal, belonging indeed in their beginning to the Maiar; and these evil spirits like their Master could take on visible forms. Those whose business it was to direct the Orcs often took Orkish shapes, though they were greater and more terrible.(4) Thus it was that the histories speak of Great Orcs or Orc-captains who were not slain, and who reappeared in battle through years far longer than the span of the lives of Men.*(5) Finally, there is a cogent point, though horrible to relate. It became clear in time that undoubted Men could under the domination of Morgoth or his agents in a few generations be reduced almost to the Orc-level of mind and habits; and then they would or could be made to mate with Orcs, producing new breeds, often larger and more cunning. There is no doubt that long afterwards, in the Third Age, Saruman rediscovered this, or learned of it in lore, and in his lust for mastery committed this, his wickedest deed: the interbreeding of Orcs and Men, (* [footnote to the text] Boldog, for instance, is a name that occurs many times in the tales of the War. But it is possible that Boldog was not a personal name, and either a title, or else the name of a kind of creature: the Orc-formed Maiar, only less formidable than the Balrogs.) producing both Men-orcs large and cunning, and Orc-men treacherous and vile. But even before this wickedness of Morgoth was suspected the Wise in the Elder Days taught always that the Orcs were not 'made' by Melkor, and therefore were not in their origin evil. They might have become irredeemable (at least by Elves and Men), but they remained within the Law. That is, that though of necessity, being the fingers of the hand of Morgoth, they must be fought with the utmost severity, they must not be dealt with in their own terms of cruelty and treachery. Captives must not be tormented, not even to discover information for the defence of the homes of Elves and Men. If any Orcs surrendered and asked for mercy, they must be granted it, even at a cost.* This was the teaching of the Wise, though in the horror of the War it was not always heeded. It is true, of course, that Morgoth held the Orcs in dire thraldom; for in their corruption they had lost almost all possibility of resisting the domination of his will. So great indeed did its pressure upon them become ere Angband fell that, if he turned his thought towards them, they were conscious of his 'eye' wherever they might be; and when Morgoth was at last removed from Arda the Orcs that survived in the West were scattered, leaderless and almost witless, and were for a long time without control or purpose. This servitude to a central will that reduced the Orcs almost to an ant-like life was seen even more plainly in the Second and Third Ages under the tyranny of Sauron, Morgoth's chief lieutenant. Sauron indeed achieved even greater control over his Orcs than Morgoth had done. He was, of course, operating on a smaller scale, and he had no enemies so great and so fell as were the Noldor in their might in the Elder Days. But he had also inherited from those days difficulties, such as the diversity of the Orcs in breed and language, and the feuds among them; while in many places in Middle-earth, after the fall of Thangorodrim and during the concealment of Sauron, the Orcs recovering from their helplessness had set up petty realms of their own and (* [footnote to the text] Few Orcs ever did so in the Elder Days, and at no time would any Orc treat with any Elf. For one thing Morgoth had achieved was to convince the Orcs beyond refutation that the Elves were crueller than themselves, taking captives only for 'amuse- ment', or to eat them (as the Orcs would do at need).) had become accustomed to independence. Nonetheless Sauron in time managed to unite them all in unreasoning hatred of the Elves and of Men who associated with them; while the Orcs of his own trained armies were so completely under his will that they would sacrifice themselves without hesitation at his com- mand.* And he proved even more skilful than his Master also in the corruption of Men who were beyond the reach of the Wise, and in reducing them to a vassalage, in which they would march with the Orcs, and vie with them in cruelty and destruction. It is thus probably to Sauron that we may look for a solution of the problem of chronology. Though of immensely smaller native power than his Master, he remained less corrupt, cooler and more capable of calculation. At least in the Elder Days, and before he was bereft of his lord and fell into the folly of imitating him, and endeavouring to become himself supreme Lord of Middle-earth. While Morgoth still stood, Sauron did not seek his own supremacy, but worked and schemed for another, desiring the triumph of Melkor, whom in the begin- ning he had adored. He thus was often able to achieve things, first conceived by Melkor, which his master did not or could not complete in the furious haste of his malice. We may assume, then, that the idea of breeding the Orcs came from Melkor, not at first maybe so much for the provision of servants or the infantry of his wars of destruction, as for the defilement of the Children and the blasphemous mockery of the designs of Eru. The details of the accomplishment of this wickedness were, however, left mainly to the subtleties of Sauron. In that case the conception in mind of the Orcs may go far back into the night of Melkor's thought, though the beginning of their actual breeding must await the awakening of Men. When Melkor was made captive, Sauron escaped and lay hid in Middle-earth; and it can in this way be understood how the breeding of the Orcs (no doubt already begun) went on with increasing speed during the age when the Noldor dwelt in Aman; so that when they returned to Middle-earth they found it already infested with this plague, to the torment of all that dwelt (* [footnote to the text] But there remained one flaw in his control, inevitable. In the kingdom of hate and fear, the strongest thing is hate. All his Orcs hated one another, and must be kept ever at war with some 'enemy' to prevent them from slaying one another.) there, Elves or Men or Dwarves. It was Sauron, also, who secretly repaired Angband for the help of his Master when he returned;(6) and there the dark places underground were already manned with hosts of the Orcs before Melkor came back at last, as Morgoth the Black Enemy, and sent them forth to bring ruin upon all that was fair. And though Angband has fallen and Morgoth is removed, still they come forth from the lightless places in the darkness of their hearts, and the earth is withered under their pitiless feet. This then, as it may appear, was my father's final view of the question: Orcs were bred from Men, and if 'the conception in mind of the Orcs may go far back into the night of Melkor's thought' it was Sauron who, during the ages of Melkor's captivity in Aman, brought into being the black armies that were available to his Master when he returned. But, as always, it is not quite so simple. Accompanying one copy of the typescript of this essay are some pages in manuscript for which my father used the blank reverse sides of papers provided by the publishers dated 10 November 1969. These pages carry two notes on the 'Orcs' essay: one, discussing the spelling of the word orc, is given on p. 422; the other is a note arising from something in the essay which is not indicated, but which is obviously the passage on p. 417 discussing the puppet-like nature inevitable in creatures brought into being by one of the great Powers themselves: the note was intended to stand in relation to the words 'But the Orcs were not of this kind'. The orks, it is true, sometimes appear to have been reduced to a condition very similar, though there remains actually a profound difference. Those orks who dwelt long under the immediate attention of his will - as garrisons of his strongholds or elements of armies trained for special purposes in his war-designs - would act like herds, obeying instantly, as if with one will, his commands even if ordered to sacrifice their lives in his service. And as was seen when Morgoth was at last overthrown and cast out, those orks that had been so absorbed scattered helplessly, without purpose either to flee or to fight, and soon died or slew themselves. Other originally independent creatures, and Men among them (but neither Elves nor Dwarves), could also be reduced to a like condition. But 'puppets', with no independent life or will, would simply cease to move or do anything at all when the will of their maker was brought to nothing. In any case the number of orks that were thus 'absorbed' was always only a small part of their total. To hold them in absolute servitude required a great expense of will. Morgoth though in origin possessed of vast power was finite; and it was this expenditure upon the orks, and still more upon the other far more formidable creatures in his service, that in the event so dissipated his powers of mind that Morgoth's overthrow became possible. Thus the greater part of the orks, though under his orders and the dark shadow of their fear of him, were only intermittently objects of his immediate thought and concern, and while that was re- moved they relapsed into independence and became conscious of their hatred of him and his tyranny. Then they might neglect his orders, or engage in Here the text breaks off. But the curious thing is that rough drafting for the second paragraph of this note (written on the same paper bearing the same date) begins thus: But Men could (and can still) be reduced to such a condition. 'Puppets' would simply cease to move or 'live' at all, when not set in motion by the direct will of their maker. In any case, though the number of orks at the height of Morgoth's power, and still after his return from captivity, seems to have been very great, those who were 'absorbed' were always a small part of the total. The words that I have italicised deny an essential conception of the essay. The other note reads thus: Orcs. This spelling was taken from Old English. The word seemed, in itself, very suitable to the creatures that 1 had in mind. But the Old English orc in meaning - so far as that is known - is not suitable.(7) Also the spelling of what, in the later more organized linguistic situation, must have been a Common Speech form of a word or group of similar words should be ork. If only because of spelling difficulties in modern English: an adjective orc + ish becomes necessary, and orcish will not do.(8) In any future publi- cation I shall use ork. In text IX (the brief writing in which my father declared the theory of Elvish origin to be certain) he spelt the word Orks, and said 'so I shall spell it in The Silmarillion'. In the present essay, obviously later than text IX, it is spelt Orcs; but now, in 1969 or later, he asserted again that it must be Orks. NOTES. 1. See text VII, p. 406. - On one copy of the text my father pencilled against this sentence the names Eruseni, Melkorseni. 2. 'legends that have come down to us from our earliest days'; this purports then to be an Elvish writing. Sauron is spoken of subsequently as a being of the past ('This servitude to a central will ... was seen even more plainly in the Second and Third Ages under the tyranny of Sauron', p. 419); but in the last sentence of the essay the Orcs are a plague that still afflicts the world. 3. The time of the Awakening of Men is now placed far back; cf. text II (p. 378), The March of the Eldar is through great Rains? Men awake in an Isle amid the floods'; 'The coming of Men will therefore be much further back'; 'Men must awake while Melkor is still in [Middle-earth] - because of their Fall. Therefore in some period during the Great March' (see p. 385 note 14). In the chronology of the Annals of Aman and the Grey Annals the Great March began in the Year of the Trees 1105 (p. 82), and the foremost companies of the Eldar came to the shores of the Great Sea in 1125; Men awoke in Hildorien in the year of the first rising of the Sun, which was the Year of the Trees 1500. Thus if the Awakening of Men is placed even very late in the period of the Great March of the Eldar it will be set back by more than 3500 Years of the Sun. See further p. 430 note 5. 4. Cf. text IX, p. 414: 'But always among them [Orcs] (as special servants and spies of Melkor, and as leaders) there must have been numerous corrupted minor spirits who assumed similar bodily shapes'; also text VIII, p. 410. 5. The footnote at this point, stating that 'Boldog, for instance, is a name that occurs many times in the tales of the War', and was perhaps not a personal name, is curious. Boldog appears several times in the Lay of Leithian as the name of the Orc-captain who led a raid into Doriath (references in the Index to The Lays of Beleriand); he reappears in the Quenta (IV.113), but is not mentioned thereafter. I do not know of any other reference to an Orc named Boldog. 6. On the later story that Angband was built by Melkor in the ancient days and that it was commanded by Sauron see p. 156, $12. There has been no reference to the repairing of Angband against Morgoth's return, and cf. the last narrative development in the Quenta Silmarillion of the story of his return (p. 295, $14): Morgoth and Ungoliant 'were drawing near to the ruins of Angband where his great western stronghold had been.' 7. See p. 124. 8. 'orcish will not do': because it would be pronounced 'orsish'. The Orkish language was so spelt in The Lord of the Rings from the First Edition. XI. This concluding text, entitled Aman, is a clear manuscript written with little hesitation or correction. I had regarded it as an independent essay, and in doubt where best to place it had left it to the end; but when this book had been fully completed and prepared for publication I realised that it stands in fact in very close relationship to the manuscript of Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth. That manuscript opens with an introductory section (given in the type- script version that my father subsequently made, pp. 304 - 5), beginning with the statement that some Men believed that their hroar were not by nature short-lived, but had become so by the malice of Melkor. I had not observed the significance of some lines at the head of this first page of the Athrabeth, which my father had struck through: these lines begin with the words 'the hroa, and it would live on, a witless body, not even a beast but a monster', and end '... Death itself, in either agony or horror, would with Men enter into Aman itself.' Now this passage is virtually identical to the conclusion of the present text, the last page of which begins at precisely the same point. It is clear, therefore, that Aman originally led into the Athrabeth, but that my father removed it to stand alone and copied out the concluding passage on a separate sheet. At the same time, presumably, he gave the remainder (the Athrabeth and its introduction) the titles Of Death and the Children of Eru, and the Marring of Men and The Converse of Finrod and Andreth.(1) It might have been preferable to place Aman with the Athrabeth in Part Four; but I thought it unnecessary at such a late stage to embark on a major upheaval of the structure of the book, and so left it to stand separately here. Aman. In Aman things were far otherwise than in Middle-earth. But they resembled the mode of Elvish life, just as the Elves more nearly resemble the Valar and Maiar than do Men. In Aman the length of the unit of 'year' was the same as it was for the Quendi. But for a different reason. In Aman this length was assigned by the Valar for their own purposes, and was related to that process which may be called the 'Ageing of Arda'. For Aman was within Arda and therefore within the Time of Arda (which was not eternal, whether Unmarred or Marred). Therefore Arda and all things in it must age, however slowly, as it proceeds from beginning to end. This ageing could be perceived by the Valar in about that length of time (propor- tionate to the whole of Arda's appointed span) which they called a Year; but not in a less period.(2) But as for the Valar themselves, and the Maiar also in their degree: they could live at any speed of thought or motion which they chose or desired.*(3) * They could move backward or forward in thought, and return again so swiftly that to those who were in their presence they did not appear to have moved. All that was past they could fully perceive; but being now in Time the future they could only perceive or explore in so far as its design was made clear to them in the Music, or as each one of them was specially concerned with this or that part of Eru's design, being His agent or Subcreator. In this way of perception they could foresee none of the acts of the Children, Elves and Men, in whose conceiving and introduction into Ea none of the Valar had played any part at all; concerning the Children they could only deduce likelihood, in the same way as can the Children themselves, though from a far greater knowledge of facts and the contributory events of the past, and with far greater intelligence and wisdom. Yet there always remained an uncertainty with regard to the words and deeds of Elves and Men in Time not yet unfolded. The unit, or Valian Year, was thus not in Aman related to the natural rates of 'growth' of any person or thing that dwelt there. Time in Aman was actual time, not merely a mode of percep- tion. As, say, 100 years went by in Middle-earth as part of Arda, so 100 years passed in Aman, which was also a part of Arda. It was, however, the fact that the Elvish speed of 'growth' accorded with the unit of Valian time + that made it possible for the Valar to bring the Eldar to dwell in Aman. In one Valian (+ Not by the design of the Valar, though doubtless not by chance. That is, it may be that Eru in designing the natures of Elves and Men and their relations one to another and to the Valar ordained that the 'growth' of the Elves should accord with the Valian perception of the progress or ageing of Arda, so that the Elves should be able to cohabit with the Valar and Maiar. Since the Children appeared in the Music, and also in the Vision, the Valar knew something or indeed much of the ordained natures of Elves and Men before they came into existence. They knew certainly that Elves should be 'immortal' or of very long life, and Men of brief life. But it was probably only during the sojourn of Orome among the fathers of the Quendi that the Valar discovered) precisely what was the mode of their lives with regard to the lapse of Time.) year the Eldar dwelling there grew and developed in much the same way as mortals did in one year upon Middle-earth. In recording the events in Aman, therefore, we may as did the Eldar themselves use the Valian unit,(4) though we must not forget that within any such 'year' the Eldar enjoyed an immense series of delights and achievements which even the most gifted of Men could not accomplish in twelve times twelve mortal years.(5) Nonetheless the Eldar 'aged' at the same speed in Aman as they had done in their beginning upon Middle-earth. But the Eldar were not native to Aman, which had not been, by the Valar, designed for them. In Aman, before their coming, there had dwelt only the Valar and their lesser kindred the Maiar. But for their delight and use there were in Aman also a great multitude of creatures, without fear, of many kinds: animals or moving creatures, and plants that are steadfast. There, it is believed, were the counterparts of all the creatures that are or have been on Earth,(6) and others also that were made for Aman only. And each kind had, as on Earth, its own nature and natural speed of growth. But since Aman was made for the Valar, that they might have peace and delight therein, ail those creatures that were thither transplanted or were trained or bred or brought into being for the purpose of inhabitation in Aman were given a speed of growth such that one year of the life natural to their kinds on Earth should in Aman be one Valian Year. For the Eldar this was a source of joy. For in Aman the world appeared to them as it does to Men on Earth, but without the shadow of death soon to come. Whereas on Earth to them all things in comparison with themselves were fleeting, swift to change and die or pass away, in Aman they endured and did not so soon cheat love with their mortality. On Earth while an elf-child did but grow to be a man or a woman, in some 3000 years, forests would rise and fall, and all the face of the land would change, while birds and flowers innumerable would be born and die in loar upon loar under the wheeling Sun. But beside all this Aman is called also the Blessed Realm, and in this was found its blessedness: in health and joy. For in Aman no creatures suffered any sickness or disorder of their natures; nor was there any decay or ageing more swift than the slow ageing of Arda itself. So that all things coming at last to fullness of form and virtue remained in that state, blissfully, ageing and wearying of their life and being no swifter than the Valar themselves. And this blessing also was granted to the Eldar. On earth the Quendi suffered no sickness, and the health of their bodies was supported by the might of the longeval fear. But their bodies, being of the stuff of Arda, were nonetheless not so enduring as their spirits; for the longevity of the Quendi was derived primarily from their fear, whose nature or 'doom' was to abide in Arda until its end. Therefore, after the vitality of the hroa was expended in achieving full growth, it began to weaken or grow weary. Very slowly indeed, but to all the Quendi perceptibly. For a while it would be fortified and maintained by its indwelling fea, and then its vitality would begin to ebb, and its desire for physical life and joy in it would pass ever more swiftly away. Then an Elf would begin (as they say now, for these things did not fully appear in the Elder Days) to 'fade', until the fea as it were consumed the hroa until it remained only in the love and memory of the spirit that had inhabited it. But in Aman, since its blessing descended upon the hroar of the Eldar, as upon all other bodies, the hroar aged only apace with the fear, and the Eldar that remained in the Blessed Realm endured in full maturity and in undimmed power of body and spirit conjoined for ages beyond our mortal comprehension. Aman and Mortal Men.(7) If it is thus in Aman, or was ere the Change of the World, and therein the Eldar had health and lasting joy, what shall we say of Men? No Man has ever set foot in Aman, or at least none has ever returned thence; for the Valar forbade it. Why so? To the Numenoreans they said that they did so because Eru had forbidden them to admit Men to the Blessed Realm; and they declared also that Men would not there be blessed (as they imagined) but accursed, and would 'wither even as a moth in a flame too bright'. Beyond these words we can but go in guess. Yet we may con- sider the matter so. The Valar were not only by Eru forbidden the attempt, they could not alter the nature, or 'doom' of Eru, of any of the Children, in which was included the speed of their ' growth (relative to the whole life of Arda) and the length of their : life-span. Even the Eldar in that respect remained unchanged. Let us suppose then that the Valar had also admitted to Aman some of the Atani, and (so that we may consider a whole life of a Man in such a state) that 'mortal' children were there born, as were children of the Eldar. Then, even though in Aman, a mortal child would still grow to maturity in some twenty years of the Sun, and the natural span of its life, the period of the cohesion of hroa and fea, would be no more than, say, 100 years. Not much more, even though his body would suffer no sickness or disorder in Aman, where no such evils existed. (Unless Men brought these evils with them - as why should they not? Even the Eldar brought to the Blessed Realm some taint of the Shadow upon Arda in which they came into being.) But in Aman such a creature would be a fleeting thing, the most swift-passing of all beasts. For his whole life would last little more than one half-year, and while all other living creatures would seem to him hardly to change, but to remain steadfast in life and joy with hope of endless years undimmed, he would rise and pass - even as upon Earth the grass may rise in spring and wither ere the winter. Then he would become filled with envy, deeming himself a victim of injustice, being denied the graces given to all other things. He would not value what he had, but feeling that he was among the least and most despised of all creatures, he would grow soon to contemn his manhood, and hate those more richly endowed. He would not escape the fear and sorrow of his swift mortality that is his lot upon Earth, in Arda Marred, but would be burdened by it unbearably to the loss of all delight. But if any should ask: why could not in Aman the blessing of longevity be granted to him, as it was to the Eldar? This must be answered. Because this would bring joy to the Eldar, their nature being different from that of Men. The nature of an Elvish fea was to endure the world to the end, and an Elvish hroa was also longeval by nature; so that an Elvish fea finding that its hroa endured with it, supporting its indwelling and remaining unwearied in bodily delight, would have increased and more lasting joy [sic]. Some indeed of the Eldar doubt that any special grace or blessing was accorded to them, other than admittance to Aman. For they hold that the failure of their hroar to endure in vitality unwearied as long as their fear - a process which was not observed until the later ages - is due to the Marring of Arda, and comes of the Shadow, and of the taint of Melkor that touches all the matter (or hroa)(8) of Arda, if not indeed of all Ea. So that all that happened in Aman was that this weakness of the Elvish hroar did not develop in the health of Aman and the Light of the Trees. But let us suppose that the 'blessing of Aman' was also accorded to Men.* What then? Would a great good be done to them? Their bodies would still come swiftly to full growth. In the seventh part of a year a Man could be born and become full-grown, as swiftly as in Aman a bird would hatch and fly from the nest. But then it would not wither or age but would endure in vigour and in the delight of bodily living. But what of that Man's fea? Its nature and 'doom' could not be changed, neither by the health of Aman nor by the will of Manwe himself. Yet it is (as the Eldar hold) its nature and doom under the will of Eru that it should not endure Arda for long, but should depart and go elsewhither, returning maybe direct to Eru for another fate or purpose that is beyond the knowledge or guess of the Eldar. Very soon then the fea and hroa of a Man in Aman would not be united and at peace, but would be opposed, to the great pain of both. The hroa being in full vigour and joy of life would cling to the fea, lest its departure should bring death; and against death it would revolt as would a great beast in full life either flee from the hunter or turn savagely upon him. But the fea would be as it were in prison, becoming ever more weary of all the delights of the hroa, until they were loathsome to it, longing ever more and more to be gone, until even those matters for its thought that it received through the hroa and its senses became meaningless. The Man would not be blessed, but accursed; and he would curse the Valar and Aman and all the things of Arda. And he would not willingly leave Aman, for that would mean rapid death, and he would have to be thrust forth with violence. But if he remained in Aman,(9) what should he come to, ere Arda were at last fulfiilled and he found release? Either his fea would be wholly dominated by the hroa, and he would become more like a beast, though one tormented within. Or else, if his fea were strong, it would leave the hroa. Then one of two things would happen: either this would be accomplished only in hate, (* Or (as some Men hold) that their hroar are not by nature short- lived, but have become so through the malice of Melkor over and above the general marring of Arda, and that this hurt could be healed and undone in Aman.) by violence, and the hroa, in full life, would be rent and die in sudden agony; or else the fea would in loathing and without pity desert the hroa, and it would live on, a witless body, not even a beast but a monster, a very work of Melkor in the midst of Aman, which the Valar themselves would fain destroy. Now these things are but matters of thought, and might-have- beens; for Eru and the Valar under Him have not permitted Men as they are (10) to dwell in Aman. Yet at least it may be seen that Men in Aman would not escape the dread of death, but would have it in greater degree and for long ages. And moreover, it seems probable that death itself, either in agony or horror, would with Men enter into Aman itself. At this point Aman as originally written (see p. 424) continued with the words 'Now some Men hold that their hroar are not indeed by nature short-lived ...', which became the beginning of the introduc- tory passage to the Athrabeth (see p. 304). NOTES. 1. The number III and a further title The Marring of Men (the other titles remaining) was given to the second part, while Aman was numbered II. No writing numbered I is found. 2. It will be seen that, as a consequence of the transformation of the 'cosmogonic myth', a wholly new conception of the 'Valian Year' had entered. The elaborate computation of Time in the Annals of Aman (see pp. 49 - 51, 59 - 60) was based on the 'cycle' or' the Two Trees that had ceased to exist in relation to the diurnal movement of the Sun that had come into being - there was a 'new reckoning'. But the 'Valian Year' is now, as it appears, a 'unit of perception' of the passage of the Time of Arda, derived from the capacity of the Valar to perceive at such intervals the process of the ageing of Arda from its beginning to its end. See note 5. 3. My father wrote the following passage ('They could move backward or forward in thought ...') in the body of the manuscript at this point, but in a small italic script, and I have preserved this form in the text printed; similarly with the following passage that interrupts the main text at the words 'the unit of Valian time'. 4. 'we may... use the Valian unit': in other words, presumably, the old structure of dates in the chronicle of Aman may be retained, although the meaning of those dates in terms of Middle-earth will be radically different. See note 5. 5. There is now a vast discrepancy between Valian Years and 'mortal years'; cf. also 'his whole life would last little more than one half-year' (p. 428), 'In the seventh part of a year a Man could be born and become full-grown' (p. 429). In notes not given in this book, in which my father was calculating on this basis the time of the Awakening of Men, he expressly stated that 144 Sun Years = 1 Valian Year (in this connection see Appendix D to The Lord of the Rings: 'It seems clear that the Eldar in Middle-earth ... reckoned in long periods, and the Quenya word yen... really means 144 of our years'). Placing the event 'after or about the time of the sack of Utumno, Valian Year 1100' (see pp. 75, 80), a gigantic lapse of time could now be conceived between the 'arising' of Men and their first appearance in Beleriand. 6. For this use of 'Earth' in opposition to 'Aman', very frequent in this essay, see p. 282. 7. The sub-heading Aman and Mortal Men was a later addition. 8. With this use of the word hroa cf. text VII, p. 399: 'the hroa, the "flesh" or physical matter, of Arda'. 9. This passage, from 'And he would not willingly leave Aman ...', was a later addition. As the text was written, it continued on from 'all the things of Arda' to 'And what should he come to...' 10. The words 'as they are' were a later addition of the same time as those referred to in notes 7 and 9. APPENDIX. SYNOPSIS OF THE TEXTS. This list is intended as no more than a very concise statement of the manuscripts and typescripts referred to in this book (other than those in Part Five). Ainulindale. B. Manuscript, dating from the 1930s, given in V.155 ff. C*. Author's typescript, introducing radical changes in the cos- mology, in existence by 1948; see pp. 3 - 7, 39 ff. C. Rewriting of B, using the old manuscript (see pp. 3, 7); given in full pp. 8 ff. D. Fine manuscript, the last version of the Ainulindale', de- veloped from C; given in part pp. 29 ff. Annals of Valinor AV 1. 'The Earliest Annals of Valinor', given in IV.262 ff. AV 2. 'The Later Annals of Valinor', given in V.109 ff. - For the rewriting of the opening of AV 2 preceding the Annals of Aman see p. 47. Annals of Aman. AAm. Manuscript, dating from the early 1950s, given in full pp. 48 ff; divided editorially into six sections followed by notes and commentary. AAm*. Author's typescript of the opening of AAm, with many departures from the manuscript (pp. 64 - 8, 79 - 80). AAm typescript. Amanuensis typescript, dating from about 1958 (see pp. 141 - 2, 300). Annotations and alterations made to this are given at the end of the commentaries on each section of AAm. Quenta Silmarillion. Q. 'The Quenta' (Qenta Noldorinwa), dating from 1930, given in IV.76 ff. QS. Quenta Silmarillion, fine manuscript abandoned at the end of 1937, given in V.199 ff. QS typescript. Author's typescript; new text (entitled Eldanyare) of the opening chapters, dating from December 1937 - January 1938 (see p. 143). LQ 1. 'Later Quenta 1', amanuensis typescript of revised QS, made in 1951( - 2); see p. 141. LQ 2. 'Later Quenta 2', amanuensis typescript incorporating all alterations made to LQ 1, made about 1958; see pp. 141 - 2. LQ. For the uses of this abbreviation see pp. 184, 200. Laws and Customs among the Eldar. A. Manuscript, given in full in its latter part (pp. 233 ff.), from the point where the typescript B breaks off (see pp. 207 - 8). B. Author's typescript, unfinished, given in full pp. 209 ff. Late recasting and development of parts of The Silmarillion. Vq 1. Author's typescript developed from LQ 2 Chapter 1 'Of the Valar' (see pp. 199 - 200). Vq 2. Author's typescript following Vq 1, entitled Valaquenta (pp. 200 ff.). FM 1. Manuscript rider to QS; the first text treating the story of Finwe and Miriel (pp. 205 ff.). FM 2. Author's typescript, second text of the story of Finwe and Miriel in the Silmarillion narrative (pp. 254 - 5 ff.). FM 3. Author's typescript, superseded by FM 4; see pp. 255 - 6. FM 4. Author's typescript, final text of the story of Finwe and Miriel; given in full pp. 256 ff. A. Author's typescript (continuation of FM 3), superseded by B; see pp. 271 - 2, 282. B. Author's typescript (continuation of FM 4), the last, and extensively developed, text of the remainder of the original Chapter 6 and the beginning of Chapter 7 (pp. 272 ff.). Athrabeth. A. Manuscript, given (with author's typescript version of the introductory section) in full pp. 304 ff. B,C. Amanuensis typescripts (see p. 303). Commentary. Author's typescript of the Commentary on the Athrabeth, with extensive notes; given in full pp. 329 ff.